to tease apart the myriad critical steps

[Wookie]

By then, Melton's team was one of only a handful in the country working on embryonic stem cells and was making headway in teasing apart the myriad critical steps needed to guide these impressionable cells into becoming insulin-generating cells.

This is from an article in TIME. This is about stem cell research.
What does "tease something apart" mean?
I'd like to know what the underlined phrase means.

 

[Cypherpunk]

Did you check the dictionary, by any chance?
It means the same thing, except instead of fibers, they're talking about unraveling the steps in a process (generating a specific cell type, starting with stem cells).

 

[Wookie]

I looked the word up in the dictionary. I was wondering if that is a kind of metaphor.
Is "teasing apart steps" a widely used expression?

 

[Cypherpunk]

No, it's not widely used. In fact, teasing apart isn't used that often, these days. And yes, I would call that a metaphor.

 

[Wookie]

What stock phrase or idiom would you use instead of "tease apart"?
What would be equivalent to "tease apart"?

 

[Forero]

"Tease apart" is fine.

"Work out" has much the same meaning in this context.

 

[JJohnson]

teasing apart the myriad critical steps

carefully separating