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 present invention relates to a microtissue compartment device, comprising a compartment structure (1) having an upper surface (2) and a lower surface (3) essentially coplanar thereto, and at least two wells (4) suitable for accommodating one or more microtissues (5) in a liquid volume, each well having a lower section (4a) with a given diameter, coaxially oriented thereto an upper section (4b) with an extended diameter, and at least one conduit (6) fluidically connecting at least two wells to one another, and at least one space (13) arranged above a well. At least one well has, in its upper section, a relief structure (9) that prevents spreading or overflow of a liquid volume comprised in said well into space (13).

Methods for purifying and isolating extracellular vesicles (EVs) from a biofluid using a sequential processing. Tangential flow filtration is applied to the biofluid to increase the concentration of EVs in the biofluid. After this is achieved, enrichment mode is halted and the biofluid is processed in diafiltration mode to remove contaminants (up to 99.9%). After performing the tangential flow filtration step, the concentration of EVs in the biofluid is further increased by ultracentrifugal filtration. After performing the ultracentrifugal filtration step, EVs of a particular target type are separated from other EVs by immunomagnetic affinity separation. In some implementations, the methods are used to isolate and quantify tumor EVs for cancer evaluation. Additionally, these methods can be used with a scaling factor to quantify EVs from a less concentrated biofluid such as, for example, urine.

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.

Disclosed herein are insulin resistance reporters for use in quantifying insulin response in biological cells. These biological cells may be stem cell compositions or derivatives thereof comprising the insulin resistance reporter. The stem cell derivatives include but are not limited to insulin responsive cells, tissues, or organoids, such as pancreatic, brain, adipose, muscle, or liver cells, or tissues or organoids thereof. Also disclosed herein are methods of using said insulin resistance reporters and cells with these insulin resistance reporters as models to examine insulin resistance and screening for compounds that are potentially useful for the treatment of diseases or disorders associated with insulin resistance. The cells comprising an insulin resistance reporter may be hepatic cells or liver organoid compositions, which can be used in investigating hepatic insulin resistance, for example, as a result of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or steatohepatitis.

The present invention provides compositions and methods for treating cancer with peptide nucleic acid agents. In some embodiments, the present invention provides methods and compositions relating to peptide nucleic acid agents that target oncogenes. For example, the present invention provides compositions, including pharmaceutical compositions, comprising agents specific for BRAF V600E inhibition, or fragments or characteristic portions thereof. The present invention further provides various therapeutic and/or diagnostic methods of using BRAF V600E specific peptide nucleic acid agents and/or compositions.

The present invention relates to a screening method for a therapeutic agent for pulmonary damage induced by the administration of high-concentration oxygen, and more specifically, to a screening method for a candidate material for a therapeutic agent for bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) induced by the administration of high-concentration oxygen. The present inventors have discovered that FPR1 is over-expressed in lung tissues exposed to high-concentration oxygen, and as a result of focusing on the correlation between the expression of FPR1 and the development of BPD, have confirmed that BPD can be suppressed by inhibiting the expression or activity of FPR1. In view of this fact, a prophylactic or therapeutic material for BPD may be discovered in a rapid and accurate manner by checking whether the expression or activity level of FPR1 is inhibited, and thus, the screening method of the present invention may be beneficially used to effectively select and develop therapeutic agents for BPD.

A contractile tissue-based analysis device is provided, in which a strip of contractile tissue is supported by support structure. The support structure comprises a substantially planar base element, and first and second support pillars extending from said base element. An optical detection device is arranged on the side of the base element opposite to said support pillars, and is arranged to capture image data from at least one of the head portions of the support pillars. The motion of the support pillars induced by the strip of contractile tissue can thus be captured from below, i.e. through the planar base element.

A MEM-based device and method of fabrication, the device comprising a biochip substrate comprising one or more compliant materials, a plurality of mechanical and electrical micro-sensors configured in an array to simultaneously measure electrical and mechanical properties of a sample, wherein a first mechanical micro-sensor is formed as a patterned layer of at least one of the compliant materials, wherein the patterned layer is coupled to a first pillar comprising a dielectric material formed onto the compliant materials, the first pillar being coated with a metal film at a contact surface with the sample and along a side of the first pillar to act as a conductive probe for the first electrical micro-sensor, and wherein the first pillar is formed on the first mechanical micro-sensor to transfer a force to the first mechanical micro-sensor.

The present invention is related to a biochip and production method thereof. The biochip comprises a carrier, a cell or tissue culture area deposited on the carrier, and a sensor area deposited on the carrier adjacent and fluidly communicating with the cell or tissue culture area. A containing space is contained in the cell or tissue culture area comprising a simulated vascular channel, a cell or a tissue and a culture medium. At least one sensor fixation area is contained at the sensor area for placing a sensor element. The present invention can be a model for stimulating cancer of specific patient to realtimely reflecting the cancer formation, transferring status and treatment strategies. The biochip could also carry testing drugs to observe how the drugs functioning to the cells/tissue as to provide a more accurate instruction of the drugs. The present invention can perform multiple test just within on chip which can save cost and also provide a more accurate test model for the patient.