Our reagents for embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell research are organized below by workflow: Isolate and Culture, Verification, Differentiation, and Investigation. Click on the navigation arrows to quickly jump to the different steps of the workflow.
View a listing of Tocris brand pharmacological reagents for investigating pluripotent stem cells.
What are Embryonic Stem and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells?
The defining characteristics of embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells are their abilities to self-renew and to differentiate into cells of all three vertebrate germ layers: ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. Embryonic stem cell and induced pluripotent stem cell research studies most often require weeks of cell culture before an experimental hypothesis can be tested. Therefore, the ability to verify that the starting cell population is healthy and undifferentiated is an important methodological step that can reduce experimental variability, improve data consistency, and provide valuable insight that may prevent weeks of wasted effort and reagents.