Cambridge, Mass. (June 26, 2007) – Chad Cowan, Ph.D., and Kevin Eggan Ph.D., Assistant Investigators with the Stowers Medical Institute, along with their Harvard Stem Cell Institute colleague Stephen Sullivan, Ph.D., have edited Human Embryonic Stem Cells: The Practical Handbook.

     The editors have gathered protocols from notable scientists describing and comparing currently-used techniques for the culture of human stem cells and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches.

     “This book is the first centralized collection of methods used in human embryonic stem cell biology,” said Dr. Cowan. “We included the derivation of human stem cell lines, the obtaining of cells from human stem cell banks, the culturing and characterization of the cells, and the differentiation of the cells in vitro and in vivo.”

     “A practical handbook is especially important in emerging areas of science, like human embryonic stem cell research,” said Dr. Eggan. “We believe the insights provided by the contributors to this book will make this research accessible to many more research teams and will help to advance the field of embryonic stem cell research.”

     The book is available through John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and can be purchased online at www.wiley.com.

About the Stowers Medical Institute
     The Stowers Medical Institute was founded by Jim and Virginia Stowers of Kansas City. Mr. Stowers founded the multi-billion-dollar American Century Companies in 1958. Inspired by personal experiences with cancer, he and Mrs. Stowers founded the Stowers Institute for Medical Research (SIMR) in Kansas City in 1994. Repeated efforts to ban early stem cell research in the state of Missouri motivated the Stowers to create and endow with their personal funds a new entity, the Stowers Medical Institute (SMI), in 2005 to fund early stem cell research outside of Missouri. The Stowers’ funding of SMI is in addition to the $2 billion combined endowments they have created for SIMR.