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.

The invention is in the field of cell culturing. More specifically, it is in the field of generating and expanding myogenic cells from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The invention relates inter alia to cells generated and expanded via such a method, a growth medium specifically suited for the purpose of expanding isolated myogenic cells, and methods for screening compounds on cell structures such as myotubes and myofibers.

FOXP3.sup.+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) can represent powerful adoptive immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases, and other chronic inflammatory diseases. The present invention is related to the ability to maintain and expand stable Treg lines and can provide insight into FOXP3.sup.+ Treg physiology and can enable feasible strategies of Treg-based immunotherapy.

The present invention provides methods to promote the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. In particular, the present invention provides methods to produce a population of cells, wherein greater than 10% of the cells in the population express markers characteristic of single hormonal pancreatic beta cells.

The technology relates in part to methods and compositions for ex vivo proliferation and expansion of epithelial cells.

A population of enteroendocrine cells (EEC) is obtained from a mammalian post-natal cell population, such as a population including post-natal stem cells, by treating the population with a plurality of small molecules that upregulate ChgA and promote differentiation of the cells to form the enteroendocrine cells. The upregulation of ChgA is such that the fraction of cells expressing CGA in the obtained cell population, as measured by a ChgA Immunostaining Assay, is at least about 1.5%. Small molecules that can be used to differentiate the post-natal cells into the enteroendocrine cells can include at least one of a Wnt activator, a Notch inhibitor, a Wnt inhibitor, a MEK/ERK inhibitor, a growth factor, a HDAC inhibitor, a Histone Methylation Inhibitor, a Tgf-β inhibitor, and a NeuroD1 activator. Also, the insulin expression of a population of mammalian cells is increased by treating the population with a plurality of small molecules that increase the insulin expression.

A method of expanding and maintaining human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in an undifferentiated state by culturing the ESCs in a suspension culture under culturing conditions devoid of substrate adherence is provided. Also provided are a method of deriving ESC lines in the suspension culture and methods of generating lineage-specific cells from ESCs which were expanded in the suspension culture of the present invention.

The present disclosure provides multicellular culture models for the study of neuroinflammation, such as to identify novel targets, biomarkers, and therapeutic agents for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Further provided herein are assays for studying neuroinflammation using the present cell culture models.

A method for expanding a population of γδ T-cells is provided in which isolated activated Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) are cultured in a medium comprising transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) under conditions in which the production of effector γδ T-cells having therapeutic activity against malignant disease is favored. The use of TGF-β in the production of effector cells in particular Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells is also described and claimed.