The present invention provides a scaffold for culturing retinal tissue comprising an amount of gelatin, an amount of chondroitin sulfate, an amount of hyaluronic acid, wherein the amount of gelatin, chondroitin sulfate, and hyaluronic acid are prepared into a three-dimensional monolith, wherein the monolith is sectioned into planar sheets, and an amount of laminin-521.

The present disclosure provides methods and compositions for inducing, maintaining and/or passaging naïve pluripotent stem cell. In some embodiments, the methods are performed in the absence of MEK inhibition which has been shown to result in genomic instability of naïve pluripotent stem cells.

Disclosed are microcapsule compositions and methods for encapsulating living cells. The methods include a microencapsulation approach to isolate and culture high-quality stem cells, including human iPSCs, cancer stem cells, cardiac stem cells, and the like. The microencapsulation methods are inspired by the development of blastomeres into a blastocyst within the Zona pellucida of the human female reproductive system. The bioinspired methods include encapsulation of blastomere-like cell clusters in a Zona-like microcapsule including a miniaturized hyaluronic acid-rich core and a semipermeable hydrogel shell. The cell clusters are subsequently cultured to form highly pluripotent spheroids with improved cell quality, homogeneity, and viability. Methods of use of said microcapsules are also disclosed including therapeutic uses related to human iPSC-based personalized medicines.

A method for producing pancreatic endocrine cells, including introducing (A), (B), (C), or (D) into somatic cells: (A) mutated GLIS1 gene having 85%-sequence-identity to base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or 2 or gene product(s) thereof, Neurogenin3 gene or gene product(s) thereof, Pdx1 gene or gene product(s) thereof, and MafA gene or gene product(s) thereof; (B) mutated GLIS1 gene having 85%-sequence-identity to base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or 2 or gene product(s) thereof, Neurogenin3 gene or gene product(s) thereof, and Pdx1 gene or gene product(s) thereof (C) GLIS1 gene or gene product(s) thereof, Neurogenin3 gene or gene product(s) thereof, Pdx1 gene or gene product(s) thereof, and MafA gene or gene product(s) thereof and (D) mutated GLIS1 gene having 85%-sequence-identity to base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or 2 or gene product(s) thereof, Neurogenin3 gene or gene product(s) thereof, and MafA gene or gene product(s) thereof.

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel method which enables convenient preparation of cells exhibiting functions close to that of intestinal epithelial cells of living bodies, and use of the method. The differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells into intestinal epithelial cells is induced by step of differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells into endoderm-like cells; step of differentiating the endoderm-like cells obtained in step into intestinal stem cell-like cells; and step of differentiating the intestinal stem cell-like cells obtained in step into intestinal epithelial cell-like cells, wherein step includes culture in the presence of a MEK1 inhibitor, a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, a TGF-β receptor inhibitor, and EGF and under the condition that cAMP is supplied to the cells.

Provided is a method for efficiently manufacturing high-purity peripheral nerve cells from undifferentiated cells. The method for manufacturing peripheral nerve cells from undifferentiated cells having an ability to differentiate into peripheral nerve cells includes the following steps (a) and (b): (a) culturing undifferentiated cells having an ability to differentiate into peripheral nerve cells to induce differentiation into neural progenitor cells without detaching a grown colony from a culture vessel; and (b) detaching the neural progenitor cells produced in the step (a) from the culture vessel, then seeding the cells at a seeding density of 2×10.sup.5 to 6×10.sup.5 cells/cm.sup.2 to a culture vessel, and culturing the cells for 14 to 42 days.

The present invention provides a cell treatment apparatus capable of treating cells in a cell culture vessel. The cell treatment apparatus 100 according to the present invention includes a first region 1, a second region 3, and a third region 5. The first region 1 and the second region 3 are placed in succession. The first region 1 is a cell treatment chamber for treating cells. The cell treatment chamber can be closed from the outside of the cell treatment chamber and includes a culture vessel placement portion for placing a cell culture vessel. The second region 3 includes: a laser irradiation device capable of irradiating the cell culture vessel placed in the culture vessel placement portion with a laser; and a spot diameter adjustment device that adjusts a spot diameter formed in a portion to be irradiated with the laser in an object to be irradiated. The third region 5 includes a control device that controls at least one device in the cell treatment apparatus 100 and a power supply device 52 that supplies electric power to at least one device in the cell treatment apparatus 100. The culture vessel placement portion is placed to be adjacent to the second region 3 in the cell treatment chamber. An adjacent portion to the second region 3 in the culture vessel placement portion is translucent.

The present application discloses a method for generating less mature cells from starting cells including inducing the starting cells to revert to a less mature state including increasing the amount of an NME family member whose multimerization state is the biologically active state or decreasing the relative amount of an NME family member whose multimerization state is the biologically inactive state.

The invention provides compositions and methods of use in reprogramming somatic cells. Compositions and methods of the invention are of use, e.g., for generating or modulating (e.g., enhancing) generation of induced pluripotent stem cells by reprogramming somatic cells. The reprogrammed somatic cells are useful for a number of purposes, including treating or preventing a medical condition in an individual. The invention further provides methods for identifying an agent that reprograms somatic cells to a pluripotent state and/or enhances the speed and/or efficiency of reprogramming. Certain of the compositions and methods relate to modulating the Wnt pathway.

The present invention relates in part to methods for producing tissue-specific cells from patient samples, and to tissue-specific cells produced using these methods. Methods for reprogramming cells using RNA are disclosed. Therapeutics comprising cells produced using these methods are also disclosed.