The present invention relates to: a cell therapeutic agent including ventral midbrain-derived astrocytes and dopamine neural progenitor cells; a method of treating a neurodegenerative disorder including administering a pharmaceutical composition comprising ventral midbrain-derived astrocytes and dopamine neural progenitor cells into a subject; and a method for differentiation into dopamine neurons, which includes preparing a mixture of ventral midbrain-derived astrocytes and dopamine neural progenitor cells and co-culturing or co-grafting the mixture. The co-grafting of ventral midbrain-derived astrocytes and dopamine neural progenitor cells (neural stem cells) improves the survival and differentiation of dopamine neurons and thus dramatically improves therapeutic outcomes in a neurodegenerative disorder including Parkinson's disease.

The present disclosure provides a planar microelectronic human blood brain barrier stack used to model drug effects and transport across the brain capillary endothelial barrier to neurons. In one embodiment the stack is comprised of a carrier substrate, electrode arrays, astrocytes, extracellular matrix and brain capillary endothelial cells.

The present disclosure relates to a method for selecting a high efficacy stem cell for treating intraventricular hemorrhage in premature infants, and more particularly, to a method for selecting a high efficacy stem cell for treating intraventricular hemorrhage, including a step of measuring an expression level of a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and a high efficacy stem cell selected by the method.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides tissue compositions including a first silk scaffold comprising a plurality of epithelial cells, a second silk scaffold comprising a plurality of stromal cells, and a plurality of neurons. In some embodiments, provided compositions can function as physiologically relevant corneal model systems for, inter alia, testing of therapeutics for corneal disease and/or injury and production of functional corneal tissue (e.g., for transplant, etc). The present invention also provides methods for making and using provided compositions.

A method of creating an isogenic multicellular blood-brain barrier model from iPSCs is disclosed.

The invention relates to culturing brain endothelial cells, and optionally astrocytes and neurons in a fluidic device under conditions whereby the cells mimic the structure and function of the blood brain barrier. Culture of such cells in a microfluidic device, whether alone or in combination with other cells, drives maturation and/or differentiation further than existing systems.

The invention relates to a method of creating a human blood-brain barrier (BBB) model from the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), wherein the BBB exhibits sustained transendothelial electrical resistances (TEER) over 2000 .Math.cm.sup.2 for at least 3 days after seeding.

The present invention relates to novel compositions and methods to produce 3D organ equivalents of the brain (i.e. mini-brains). The invention also relates to methods of using human induced pluripotent stem cells, a combination of growth and other soluble factors and gyratory shaking. Cells from healthy or diseased donors or animals can be used to allow testing different genetic backgrounds. The model can be further enhanced by using genetically modified cells, adding micro-glia or their precursors or indicator cells (e.g. with reporter genes or tracers) as well as adding endothelial cells to form a blood-brain-barrier.

The invention generally relates to optical methods for the diagnosis of neuronal condition by converting a cell from a patient into a neuron and optically evaluating action potentials of that cell in vitro. The cell is transformed with an optical reporter and exhibits an optical signature in response to neural stimulation. Using genome-editing, a control cell can be made that is isogenic but-for a known mutation and a control signature obtained from the control cell. Thus, methods of the invention reveal potential neurodegenerative effects of a mutation as manifested in a patient's genetic context. The optical signature of the cell, or the difference between the signature and the control signature, is correlated to a diagnosis of the neurodegenerative disease

There is provided a method for efficient differentiation induction from human pluripotent stem cells into hypothalamic neurons. Also, provided is a method for constructing, from human pluripotent stem cells, a cellular structure in which hypothalamic tissue and pituitary tissue are integrated. A cellular structure including hypothalamic tissue is obtained by a method including the steps of: culturing an aggregate of human pluripotent stem cells in suspension in a medium containing a low concentration of a bone morphogenetic protein signal transduction pathway activating substance and a low concentration of a substance acting on the Shh signaling pathway; and further culturing the cell aggregate obtained in the step in suspension in a medium containing a low concentration of a substance acting on the Shh signaling pathway.