The present invention provides a method for preventing or treating a demyelinating disease in a subject. Also provided herein is a method for reducing demyelination, inducing remyelination, promoting oligodendroglial progenitor cell (OPC) proliferation, and/or promoting oligodendrocyte differentiation in a subject. Kits are also described herein.

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 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 present invention relates to a micro-fluid chip for blood vessel formation. The micro-fluid chip of the present invention is constituted by first to fifth channels arranged adjacent to one another on a substrate in sequence, and two or more micro-structures or micro-posts having a gap therebetween are disposed on the interface that each channel forms together with an adjacent channel while contacting the same. Each channel performs a fluidic interaction with a different channel through the gap formed by the micro-structures, and biochemical materials can move therethrough. The micro-fluid chip, according to the present invention, provides a micro-blood vessel having a flat and continuous blood vessel interface outside a body. Furthermore, cancer angiogenesis, cancer intravasation, and cancer extravasation can be modeled using the micro-fluid chip of the present invention. In addition, the micro-fluid chip of the present invention can be used to screen candidate anti-cancer drugs.

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 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 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 present invention discloses a method of identifying agents that affect human astrocytes functionality using ex-vivo differentiated pluripotent stem cells (PSC). In addition, the use of human progenitor astrocytes or human astrocytes for the treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in a human subject is also disclosed.

The present invention relates to substantially planar vascularized brain cancer organoid and methods of using such vascularized brain cancer organoids in anti-cancer drug discovery screen. In particular, provided herein are methods of producing and using complex, highly uniform vascularized brain cancer organoids that comprise physiologically relevant human cells and have the high degree of sample uniformity and reproducibility required for use in high-throughput screening applications.