Understand what is meant by a stem cell, including the differences between totipotent, pluripotent and multipotent stem cells.

Understand that pluripotent stem cells from embryos provide opportunities to develop new medical advances although there are ethical considerations.

Understand how epigenetic modifications can result in totipotent stem cells in the embryo developing into pluripotent cells in the blastocyst and finally into fully differentiated somatic cells.

Understand how differentiated fibroblasts can be reprogrammed to form induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) by the artificial introduction of named genes.

Understand why the use of iPS stem cells may be less problematic than the use of embryonic stem cells.