The present disclosure provides, in part, a cell culture medium comprising a serum-free medium and one or more fibroblast growth factor (FGF) activators, a kit comprising the cell culture medium and instructions for use, methods of growing cells in vitro and of producing a cultured meat using the cell culture medium, and a cultured meat so produced.

A method for producing renal stromal cells, comprising a step (3) of culturing renal stromal precursors in a medium comprising a platelet derived growth factor receptor agonist to obtain renal stromal cells is provided as a technique for supplying renal stromal cells. This production method can further comprise a step (2) of inducing renal stromal precursors from neural crest cells, and a step (1) of culturing pluripotent stem cells in a medium comprising a GSK3β inhibitor, a TGFβ inhibitor, and retinoic acid and/or a derivative thereof to induce neural crest cells.

The present invention provides a production method of a retinal pigment epithelial cell containing the following steps: (1) a first step for culturing a pluripotent stem cell in a medium containing at least one kind selected from the group consisting of an FGF receptor inhibitor and an MEK inhibitor for a period of not more than 30 days, and (2) a second step for culturing the cell obtained in the first step in a medium containing at least one kind selected from the group consisting of a Rho signal transduction pathway inhibitor and an apoptosis inhibitor to form a retinal pigment epithelial cell. The method can produce retinal pigment epithelial cells from pluripotent stem cells more efficiently and conveniently.

The invention disclosed herein generally relates to methods and systems for converting stem cells into specific tissue(s) or cells through directed differentiation. In particular, the invention disclosed herein relates to methods and systems for promoting functional basal-like cells from pluripotent stem cell-derived lung bud tip progenitor organoid tissue through activation of SMAD signaling via activation of TGFβ1 (and/or the TGFβ signaling pathway) and BMP4 (and/or the BMP signaling pathway).

Disclosed is a method for producing kidney organoids including steps of: (1) differentiating stem cells into metanephric mesenchyme cells; (2) forming metanephric mesenchyme cell aggregates by culturing the metanephric mesenchyme cells; and (3) differentiating the metanephric mesenchyme cell aggregates into kidney organoids.

The present invention provides methods to promote the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into insulin producing cells. In particular, the present invention provides a method to produce cells expressing markers characteristic of the pancreatic endocrine lineage that co-express NKX6.1 and insulin and minimal amounts of glucagon.

A method of producing an organoid derived from a lung epithelial cell or a lung cancer cell, comprising culturing a sample including the lung epithelial cell or the lung cancer cell in a culture medium, wherein the culture medium contains 0-10% (v/v) extracellular matrix, and a combination of at least one selected from the group consisting of keratinocyte growth factor (KGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 10, and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF); bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) inhibitor; and TGFβ inhibitor, and the culture medium is substantially free of feeder cells.

Methods for generating thymic epithelial progenitor (TEP) cells from pluripotent stem (PS) cells in vitro are provided. Compositions and systems of cell populations of TEP cells as well as cells formed during different stages of differentiation of PS cells into TEP cells are also disclosed. The methods, isolated in vitro cell populations, compositions, and systems disclosed provide functional TEP cells that mature into thymic epithelial cells in vivo.

The present invention provides an endodermal cell production method that can induce differentiation of pluripotent cells into endodermal cells even when the pluripotent cells are dispersed and can achieve improved endodermal cell production efficiency. The endodermal cell production method according to the present invention is a method for producing endodermal cells by inducing differentiation of pluripotent cells into the endodermal cells, including the step of: inducing differentiation of the pluripotent cells into the endodermal cells in the presence of an endodermal cell inducing factor. In the induction step, the cell density of the pluripotent cells at the start of the induction preferably is from 0.5×10.sup.4 to 2×10.sup.4 cells/cm.sup.2.

The invention provides for methods of differentiating pancreatic endocrine cells into pancreatic beta cells expressing PDX1, NKX6.1, MAFA, UCN3 and SLC2A. These pancreatic beta cells may be obtained by step-wise differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. The pancreatic beta cells exhibit glucose-dependent mitochondrial respiration and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion similar to islet cells.