The Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research (often referred to as the CSCR) at the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 is a research centre on the nature and potential medical uses of stem cell

Stem cell

This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...

s. It is located on Tennis Court Road

Tennis Court Road

Tennis Court Road is a street in central Cambridge, England. It runs parallel with Trumpington Street to the west and Regent Street to the east. At the northern end is a junction with Pembroke Street to the west and Downing Street to the east. To the south as a T-junction with Lensfield Road...

 in Central Cambridge.

The Centre is funded by the Wellcome Trust

Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust was established in 1936 as an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health. With an endowment of around £13.9 billion, it is the United Kingdom's largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research...

 as well as the Medical Research Council

Medical Research Council (UK)

The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...

. The director is Austin Smith, and the Deputy Director is Fiona Watt

Fiona Watt

Fiona Watt, FRS is a British scientist. She studies epidermal stem cells at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, at both of which she holds the position of Deputy Director. She received a DPhil degree in 1979 from the University...

.

The main areas of study include pluripotent and neural stem cells, as well as epidermal stem cells. Key advances in stem cell science at the centre include the elucidation of the role of the nanog

NANOG

The North American Network Operators' Group is an educational and operational forum for the coordination and dissemination of technical information related to backbone/enterprise networking technologies and operational practices. It runs meetings, talks, surveys, and an influential mailing list...

 protein in pluripotency and work on inhibiting cellular differentiation

Cellular differentiation

In developmental biology, cellular differentiation is the process by which a less specialized cell becomes a more specialized cell type. Differentiation occurs numerous times during the development of a multicellular organism as the organism changes from a simple zygote to a complex system of...

. It also conducts human embryo work as approved by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is a statutory body in the United Kingdom that regulates and inspects all UK clinics providing in vitro fertilisation, artificial insemination and the storage of human eggs, sperm or embryos. It also regulates Human Embryo research...

.