The present specification provides a spontaneous-contracting cardiac organoid, a method for manufacturing the organoid, and a method for evaluating drug toxicity by using same, the cardiac organoid comprising: a chamber in which a fluid is stored; a first pipe connected to the chamber so that the fluid flows therethrough; a second pipe connected to the chamber so that the fluid is discharged therethrough; and a valve formed on the first pipe so as to spontaneously open/close an inflow pipe.

The present invention relates to 3D brain organoids, uses thereof, methods and culture medium for generating such organoids. An aspect of the invention provides brain organoids and methods of generating such organoids with bilaterally symmetric optic vesicles, containing both neuronal and non-neuronal cell types, and exhibiting functional circuitry. These organoids can be generated within short time intervals (e.g., 50 days) and therefore are useful for medical modelling and applications.

Methods for generating cells of the inner ear, e.g., hair cells and supporting cells, from stem cells, e.g., mesenchymal stem cells, are provided, as well as compositions including the inner ear cells. Methods for the therapeutic use of the inner ear cells for the treatment of hearing loss are also described.

The presently disclosed subject matter provides for in vitro methods of inducing differentiation of stem cells (e.g., human stem cells) into proprioceptors, proprioceptors generated by such methods, and compositions comprising such proprioceptors. The presently disclosed subject matter also provides for uses of such proprioceptors for preventing and/or treating disorders of proprioceptor neurons and/or neurodegenerative disorders (e.g., Friedreich's Ataxia).

The present invention provides a nerve cell device in which early observation of nerve activity (spikes, bursts, and the like) is made possible and the measured electric strength is increased by cultivating neurons upon a cell scaffold. By using this nerve cell device, imaging of intracellular signaling is also possible.

The present disclosure relates to an advanced in vivo reprogramming system and a cell conversion method using same. The reprogramming system of the present disclosure comprises a start cell marker promoter, a pluripotency-maintaining gene protein, an amino acid isolation peptide, Cre recombinase, a target cell marker promoter, LoxP, and a gene encoding a fluorescent protein, does not require cell fixation in order to confirm cell conversion, enables real-time monitoring in a living cell state, and may be used both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, the present disclosure is expected to be widely used in the biological and medical fields.

Provided is a preparation method for olfactory progenitor cells. Also provided is an olfactory progenitor cell obtained by the method according to the present invention, wherein the single cell of the olfactory progenitor cell can be serially passaged for more than 11 generations. Compared with the prior art, the preparation method for olfactory progenitor cells of the present invention has excellent effects, by which a large quantity of olfactory progenitor cells can be obtained. Moreover, the method is simple and feasible with low cost and good safety, and has a good application prospect in China and abroad.

The present invention provides an isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising, or consisting of, the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:1 or a nucleic acid sequence of at least 400 bp having at least 80% identity to said sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, wherein said isolated nucleic acid molecule specifically leads to the expression in direction selective retinal ganglion cells of a gene when operatively linked to a nucleic acid sequence coding for said gene.

Provided herein are compositions that include at least two different nucleic acid vectors, where each of the at least two different vectors includes a coding sequence that encodes a different portion of an otoferlin protein, and the use of these compositions to treat hearing loss in a subject.

The present invention relates to a method for obtaining a neural micros-phere, comprising the steps of culturing pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), differentiating the PSCs into neural stem precursor blast cells, aggregating the neural stem precursor blast cells to form a neural microsphere, allowing the neural stem precursor blast cells of the neural microsphere to further mature, and collecting the neural microsphere.