This paper will discuss the importance of interdisciplinary research in the development of teratoma research to embryonic stem cell research. This has encompassed the fields of cancer biology, pathology, cell biology & embryology. Teratomas – tumours of the testes or ovaries – can develop several tissue types in various stages of differentiation, including hair, teeth & muscle, for example. These tumours were therefore identified as potentially useful in studying early development & differentiation (given the ethical & technical difficulties in examining development in the actual foetus).

In the 1950s, Leroy Stevens working at Jackson Laboratories identified an inbred strain of mice particularly prone to developing testicular teratomas, & developed this strain to study these tumours. Several researchers identified the potential of using teratomas to study development, which was made possible when Barry Pierce (a recent graduate of medicine & specialist in pathology) developed a cell biology technique to produce ‘embryoid bodies’ from teratoma cells. This enabled tumour cells from Stevens’ original strain to be transferred to laboratories around the world.

Utilising these more accessible tumours, understanding of teratomas developed. Pierce & Frank Dixon used cell biology & histological methods to demonstrate that teratomas had a stem cell population. This was confirmed a few years later by Martin Evans & Gail Martin, who isolated these stem cells & cultured cell lines – cells which became known as embryonic carcinoma cells (ECCs), allowing pluripotency to studied in the laboratory. At this point normal pluripotent embryonic cells had not been isolated & cultured successfully, & were therefore unavailable for research.

Isolated ECCs were then used to create chimaeric mice, a technique developed in the 1960s & 1970s. This not only demonstrated that teratoma cells were capable of contributing to normal development, but the techniques developed also allowed eventual creation of mouse models of disease – an essential tool utilised in current research. Methods learned from this research were then used by both Martin & Evans to individually isolate pluripotent embryonic cells in 1981. Martin used her skills in cell biology to produce her cell line, whereas Evans worked alongside Mathew Kaufman to manipulate early embryos. This demonstrates how the increasing availability of techniques (& disciplines) in biological sciences allowed stem cell biology to progress.