Disclosed herein are methods of reprograming autologous tissues or cells into astrocytes or astroglial progenitor cells using one or more small molecule compounds only without any transgenes. Also disclosed are methods of preventing or treating neurodegenerative diseases or neurological disorders associated with dysfunction of astrocytes, such as Alzheimer's Disease, by transplanting the astrocytes or astroglial progenitor cells produced by the methods disclosed herein into the brain of a subject suffering from the neurodegenerative disease or neurological disorder.

An in vitro method of expanding γδ T cells includes isolating γδ T cells from a blood sample of a human subject, activating the isolated γδ T cells in the presence of an aminobisphosphonate and/or a feeder cell and at least one cytokine, expanding the activated γδ T cells, and optionally restimulating the expanded γδ T cells.

In some embodiments, methods of delivering a therapeutically effective amount of an expanded number of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes obtained from tumor remnants to a patient in need thereof, for the treatment of a cancer, are disclosed.

Provided are a small molecule compound combination for reprogramming digestive tract derived epithelial cells to endodermal stem/progenitor cells, a reprogramming method and an application. Human gastric epithelial cells (hGECs) are used as initiating cells, human gastric subepithelial myofibroblasts (aGSEMFs) are used as a trophoblast, a compound combination having all or a plurality of FBP, Bay K 8644, Bix01294, SB431542 or A813-01, VPA, RG108, PD0325901 and PS48 including SB or A83 is used to reprogram digestive tract derived epithelial cells to endodermal stem/progenitor cells, and the endodermal stem/progenitor cells can be used for inducing differentiation towards liver cells, pancreatic beta cells and intestinal cells.

Provided herein are methods and compositions for inducing chemical senescence in neurons and methods of using chemically induced senescent neurons for modeling neurodegenerative disease and drug discovery. The methods include contacting human neurons with a culture medium comprising an inhibitor of DNA glycosylase 1, an autophagy inhibitor, and an HIV protease inhibitor to obtain an in vitro population of senescent neurons within about 4 days. When the neurons are obtained from a patient having a neurodegenerative disease, chemically induced senescent neurons obtained by these methods recapitulate cellular and subcellular phenotypes observed in individuals with the neurodegenerative disease.

Described are cell culture solutions and systems for epithelial stem cell and organoid cultures, formation of epithelial constructs and uses of the same in transplantation.

The present invention provides methods and compositions for converting non-Tregs into Tregs. The converted Tregs are referred to as inducible Tregs (iTregs). The iTregs are useful for preventing, suppressing, blocking or inhibiting an immune response. For example the iTregs are useful for preventing rejection of a transplanted tissue in a human or other animal host, or protecting against graft vs host disease. The iTregs can also be used to treat autoimmune diseases.

This invention provides a method for stably producing alveolar epithelial progenitor cells from pluripotent stem cells, including steps of culturing pluripotent stem cells in (1) a medium containing activin A and a GSK3β inhibitor, (2) a medium containing a BMP inhibitor and a TGFβ inhibitor, and (3) a medium containing BMP4, retinoic acid, and a GSK3β inhibitor.

The present invention features compositions and methods for recapitulating physiological X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) in a cell, including a cell of any embryo generated by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT). In one aspect, the invention features a method for generating physiological X chromosome inactivation in an embryo generated by SCNT, the method comprising injecting the embryo generated via SCNT with an H3K27me3-specific demethylase polypeptide or a polynucleotide encoding said demethylase. Disclosed herein are methods, compositions, and kits comprising an agent which increases the expression of genes encoding an H3K27me3-specific demethylase, or increases the activity of human H3K27me3-specific demethylase.

The disclosure relates generally to the generation and use of immune effector cells (e.g., T cells, NK cells) engineered to express an immune receptor (e.g., Chimeric Antigen Receptor, Synthetic Immune Receptor, T Cell Receptor etc.) to treat a disease associated with expression of a target antigen.