The secrets stem cells hold could answer fundamental questions about the development of life itself and lead to major advances in medicine. But what are stem cells and why are they so laden with potential? U-M faculty researchers who have devoted their careers to stem cell research talk about how the cells work, why they could answer questions about the mystery of human development, and what formidable barriers remain before we might experience significant medical benefits from clinical applications. More...

For centuries, dissection of cadavers remained the foremost means by which gross anatomy has been taught and learned. But recent revolutions in technology are likewise revolutionizing the study of anatomy and bringing wondrous new tools to bear on ‘looking inside’ the human body, profoundly impacting how the fundamentals of medicine are learned along the way. More...

Long hours, low pay, the extreme stress of new responsibility to apply recently-acquired medical knowledge to life-and-death situations involving real people in real time: these qualities have become synonymous with the residency experience. But U-M house officers past and present, in comparing the experience then and now, offer another view as well, one that hasn’t changed over the years: that this time in a physician’s life is a rich and incomparable opportunity to grow and learn as a healer and as a human being. More...