<p>Haha, I can't imagine there's a huge difference between the biology departments at Caltech and MIT. The general requirements for all Caltech students are probably more difficult than those at MIT, but biology is just sort of biology! At any rate, both departments have a similar focus on neurobiology, cell biology, and developmental biology.</p>
<p>I think the big question about stem cell research is whether or not researchers at a given institution are interested in them or not. To be honest, there aren't that many places in the US right now where you have a great deal of stem cell research (since the $$$ to fund said research hasn't been around). Schools in California, I'm sure, are likely to find themselves at the forefront of such research since the money will be flowing soon, but as of right now, I don't know too many profs who are doing stem cell stuff.</p>
<p>A list of the research interests of MIT faculty can be found [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/biology/www/facultyareas/viewbyarea.html%5Dhere%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/biology/www/facultyareas/viewbyarea.html]here[/url</a>]. MIT's faculty is somewhat larger than Caltech's (and the graduate program in biology is ranked slightly higher), but both are absolutely excellent, and I wouldn't choose one over the other due to rankings.</p>