Stem cells have the potential to revolutionize treatment for a wide array of diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, though harvesting enough of them for beneficial use and keeping them viable until they are needed presents significant challenges. So, researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), have developed an efficient technique for taking these cells from a common source—wisdom teeth.

When she was under fire, dodging bullets at the Route 91 Harvest festival on Sunday, Megan Greene felt an odd sense of purpose. "If you're still breathing, you're fine," she told a panicky woman trying to escape with her mother, who uses a wheelchair.

Jill Roberts heard the screaming and crying in the Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center emergency room Sunday night as the families and friends of those killed in the Route 91 Harvest music festival shooting found out their loved ones didn’t survive the attack.

Between a Facebook post Saturday morning promoting its resort and a post around 3 a.m. Monday expressing condolences and information about a lockdown, there was nothing on Mandalay Bay’s account.

Stem cells. Few research discoveries hold as much promise of single-handedly expanding medical treatment options as they do. Miraculously able to act as transformers—either re-creating or morphing into a variety of cell types found within the organisms they originate from—stem cells offer humanity hope for new, more effective therapies against a number of chronic and terminal diseases. And finding them is surprisingly easy.

“Stem cells can be extracted from nearly any living tissue,” said Dr. James Mah, director of UNLV’s advanced education program in orthodontics, doctor of dental surgery, and dental researcher. “In fact, stem cells can even be found in tissues of the deceased.”

Christie White, 46, smiles thinking of her last peaceful memory. It was a girls’ weekend. It was Sunday night. Christie and Dani and Beth were hanging out in the perfect late-summer weather under glimmering Las Vegas lights with some cocktails, and their favorite country bands.

You’re by now familiar with the horrific, acute trauma of Sunday night in Las Vegas: 59 dead and over 500 wounded. When the bullets began crossing Las Vegas Boulevard, roughly 22,000 attendees ran for their lives. These masses were left physically unscathed, but with possible mental wounds, and they fled the neon of the Strip into what is essentially a mental health-care desert.

Students at UNLV's Center for Gaming Innovation have big plans to shake up the casino world.