Question: Is the pattern of growth of the stem cells usually predictable or have there been any instances in which something happened that you didn’t expect given you may be dealing with new diseases?

Eve Coomber answered on 20 May 2020:

Yes all the time! Databases can ‘predict’ what a mutation in DNA might do. We might think it affects growth for example but we don’t know for sure. By reading about what is already known about the gene (the mutation is in) we can come up with ideas of what effect it may have in the stem cell. Then we test them out! If none of these are true then we come up with new ideas or perhaps use a different type of cell to test in.