>>14352231PhD in cell biology here, worked on developing neurons specifically.
It would be detrimental to your career prospects, if you don't plan ahead.
No serious research is done in neuroscience without eventually using primary animal cells, especially in neuroscience (primary neurons don't have a good model, PC12 cells and the like are proxies that don't really hold up. neurons are too specialized). On the animal level, you pretty much have to use live animals. Lots of animal sacrifices; I euthanized an average of ~5-15 mice a week. No research can really be done without sacrifice.
Embryonic stem cells aren't used so much anymore. Mostly, people just use induced pluripotent stem cells. You'll find the odd duck labs still using embryonic, of course.
You CAN find a lab that only does very narrow, not-exciting or breakthrough research that does not use embryonic stem cells or animal models. But a PhD is a long time, and it's very likely those will be introduced to the research if it takes an exciting turn.
Essentially, choose another career path.
