There is disclosed patient derived xenograft (PDXs) cells/systems/models and/or derivatives, parental (unlabelled) and/or labelled, expressing a fluorescent protein or a luciferase, or a combination thereof; for evaluating therapies comprising nasopharyngeal carcinoma (EBV positive and/or EBV negative). In another embodiment, there is disclosed a method of evaluating the efficacy of an agent used to treat nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) comprising: preparing a non-human model; whereby the non-human model carries cells from NPC xenograft; labelling the cells from the NPC xenograft with gfp-luc2 marker using a lentiviral vector system; and growing the cells in short term in vitro culture; including adaptation of said culture into multi-well plates for use in further screening and/or evaluation assays; wherein the NPC xenograft is PDX.

The present disclosure provides methods for generating an in vitro model of cholestatic liver disease and uses of the same. In some embodiments, the methods involve an in vitro culture system for producing hepatocyte-like cells from pluripotent stem cells.

Many cell types in the body can remove apoptotic and cellular debris from tissues; however, the professional phagocyte, or antigen presenting cell (“APC”), has a high capacity to do so. The recognition of apoptotic cells (“ACs”) occurs via a series of evolutionarily-conserved, AC associated molecular-pattern receptors (“ACAMPRs”) on APCs that recognize and bind corresponding apoptotic-cell-associated molecular patterns (“ACAMPs”). These receptors recognize ligands such as phosphotidyl serine and oxidized lipids found on apoptotic cells. Savill et al. (2002); and Gregory et al. (2004).

The invention in relates in part to a method for rejuvenating hair follicles, the method comprising the steps of: (1) obtaining androgen non-inhibited cells from hair follicle tissue; (2) culturing the androgen non-inhibited cells to produce an expanded population of androgen-non-inhibited cells; and (3) implanting the expanded population of androgen non-inhibited cells proximal to miniaturised and/or miniaturising hair follicles.

A chemically defined medium for differentiation of muscle stem cells in vitro, namely a serum-free, more efficient and inexpensive chemically defined medium for inducing differentiation of muscle stem cells in vitro. Compared with an existing general muscle stem cell differentiation medium, using the chemically defined medium can increase the relative expression of myogenin genes by 4.48 times on the 2.sup.nd day of differentiation, increase the relative expression of myosin heavy chain genes by 55.28 times on the 6.sup.th day, and increase the percentage of cell differentiation from 34.94% to 57.93% in the terminal differentiation stage, and more, thicker and longer muscle fibers are formed through induced differentiation. The chemically defined differentiation medium further improves the differentiation efficiency of muscle stem cells, and provides a more efficient and inexpensive method for differentiation of muscle stem cells into myotubes, and for 3D culture of muscle stem cells to produce cell cultured meat.

The present disclosure relates to a cryopreserved pharmaceutical composition comprising immature dental pulp stem cells (IDPSCs) expressing SOX-1 and SOX-2 and methods of treating a neurological disease or condition comprising systemically administering to a subject a cryopreserved pharmaceutical composition comprising IDPSCs expressing SOX-1 and SOX-2.

The present invention provides means for producing an organoid close to an organ in a living body and capable of secretion of a plasma protein and immune response. A matrix composition of the present invention provided as such means includes: (1) a first matrix containing one or more cells selected from the group consisting of vascular cells, nerve cells, and blood cells; and (2) a second matrix containing to cells constituting an organ and/or an organoid, in which the first matrix envelops the second matrix, and the first matrix has at least one opening.

A method of expanding TCRalpha deficient T-cells by expressing pTalpha or functional variants thereof into said cells, thereby restoring a functional CD3 complex. This method is particularly useful to enhance the efficiency of immunotherapy using primary T-cells from donors. This method involves the use of pTalpha or functional variants thereof and polynucleotides encoding such polypeptides to expand TCRalpha deficient T-cells. Such engineered cells can be obtained by using specific rare-cutting endonuclease, preferably TALE-nucleases. The use of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR), especially multi-chain CAR, in such engineered cells to target malignant or infected cells. The invention opens the way to standard and affordable adoptive immunotherapy strategies for treating cancer and viral infections.

The disclosure provides a salivary gland (SG) cell sheet comprising one or more layers of confluent SG cells (e.g. submandibular gland (SMG) cells). Methods of treating a wound in a salivary gland (SG), treating hyposalivation, and treating irradiation damage in an SG are also provided. The disclosure also provides a method for producing SG cell sheets comprising culturing SG cells in culture solution on a temperature-responsive polymer which has been coated onto a substrate surface of a cell culture support, wherein the temperature-responsive polymer has a lower critical solution temperature in water of 0-80° C.; adjusting the temperature of el the culture solution to below the lower critical solution temperature, whereby the substrate surface is made hydrophilic and adhesion of the cell sheet to the surface is weakened; and detaching the cell sheet from the culture support.

A method of culturing natural killer (NK) cells according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can be used in immunotherapy. An additive composition for an NK cell culture medium according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may inhibit the activity of CD4+ T cells, thereby effectively helping NK cell proliferation and activation.