I'm about to start researching at my school and was wondering which departmentS or areaS of study would give me the best chances of getting published? Stem cell research one of these? thanks for ur advice.
stem cell is not one of them.
it really depends on luck, whom you work with, what stage of the project you enter the lab, how nice the graduate/post-doc is to let your name be on the paper, etc.
above goes for most pre-meds. a few actually do conduct signficant research and publish. and if you work very hard in the lab (ie a lot of time), you will get there.
and i know how competitive it is to get into medical school, but you really shouldn't worry about publications. your PI's LOR is more important IMO. Anyhow, good luck!
Stem cell research? Are you even allowed to do that as an undergrad?
because it's expensive (time and money) to train and work with ESCs. That's why they use animal models first.