Colony Forming Units

While she does stem cell culture and colony forming assay, her best friend does colony forming units.  Mel says her job is as interesting as my sister's.  What she does in the lab is separate and count the viable bacterial and fungal numbers.  Other studies count everything including dead cells; Mel only counts the workable cells.  These viable cells are the ones used to multiply and regenerate.  It's complicated especially for me who is not very familiar with the terms they use when they talk about their jobs.  What I do know is these stem cells will be used to treat major diseases.