The present invention relates to a method of patterning and chopping 3D organoids prepared from human pluripotent stem cells, culturing the stem cells or progenitor cells, and inducing the differentiation thereof to obtain a large amount of finally differentiated cells. Compared to cells differentiated by a conventional differentiation method, the cells obtained in a large amount exhibit remarkably superior effects in terms of reproducibility, stability, and functionality, and thus are expected to be very useful for cell therapeutic agents or for the screening of therapeutic drugs.

The invention relates to differentiation methods for progenitor cells, e.g. mammalian epithelial stem cells, differentiation media for use in said methods, organoids and cells obtainable by said methods and uses, including therapeutic uses, thereof.

Cranial placodes are embryonic structures essential for sensory and endocrine organ development. The efficient derivation of cranial placodes from human pluripotent stem cells is disclosed where the timed removal of the BMP inhibitor Noggin, a component of the dual-SMAD inhibition strategy of neural induction, triggers placode induction at the expense of CNS fates. Further fate specification at the pre-placode stage enables the selective generation of placode-derived trigeminal ganglia capable of in vivo engraftment, mature lens fibers and anterior pituitary hormone-producing cells that upon transplantation produce hormones including, but not limited to, human growth hormone and adrenocortiocotropic hormone in vivo. Alternatively, anterior pituitary hormone-producing cells are generated in cell culture systems in vitro.

The present invention provides methods to promote the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. In particular, the present invention provides an improved method for the formation of pancreatic endoderm, pancreatic hormone expressing cells and pancreatic hormone secreting cells. The present invention also provides methods to promote the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells without the use of a feeder cell layer.

The present invention relates to methods for differentiating stem cells into ventral midbrain dopaminergic progenitor cells, and into mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons, and compositions, kits, and uses thereof.

The present invention relates to a method for producing induced dopaminergic neuronal progenitors from adult cells using direct reprogramming, induced dopaminergic neuronal progenitors produced via the method and a use for same, wherein, as a result of having been directly reprogrammed from adult cells, the induced dopaminergic neuronal progenitors produced by means of the present invention can be transplanted inside a living body without the risk of oncogenicity, and have excellent proliferative capacity and dopaminergic neuronal differentiation potency, thus can be usefully utilized as a cell therapy product for Parkinson's disease.

Provided is a method for freezing a cell aggregate including neural cells. provided is a method for freezing a cell aggregate including neural cells and having a three-dimensional structure, which comprises following steps (1) and (2): (1) contacting a cell aggregate including neural cells and having a three-dimensional structure with a preservation solution at 0° C. to 30° C. prior to freezing to prepare a preservation solution-soaked cell aggregate; and (2) cooling the preservation solution-soaked cell aggregate obtained in step (1) from a temperature at least about 5° C. higher than the freezing point of the preservation solution to a temperature about 5° C. lower than the freezing point at an average cooling speed of 2 to 7° C./min to freeze the cell aggregate.

This document relates to bioengineering and involves bioengineered thymus organoids and related humanized animal models. The thymus organoids and animal models have various commercial and clinical uses, including generating humanized antibodies, making antigen-specific human T cells, inducing transplantation tolerance, rejuvenating thymus functions, and modeling human diseases.

Disclosed herein include methods and compositions for culture medias for in vitro culture of synthetic embryos from mammalian pluripotent stem cells and extra-embryonic stem cells. The methods and compositions described herein can generate synthetic embryos at different developmental stage reaching early organogenesis and beyond. Disclosed herein also include an embryo culturing system and methods of using same.

Methods for generating human committed midbrain neural stem cells (NSCs) and midbrain neural progenitor cells (midbrain NPCs) from human pluripotent stem cells are provided using chemically-defined culture media that allow for generation of the midbrain NPCs in as little as six days. The midbrain NPCs can be further differentiated to mature dopaminergic neurons. Culture media, isolated cell populations and kits are also provided.