A Stem Cell Model to Study Human Cortical Interneuron Function

神经和精神疾病如癫痫和精神分裂症是现代社会的主要负担。由于我们对疾病如何发展的知识有限，目前还没有有效的治疗方法。然而，很明显，在这些患者的大脑中，一种称为皮质中间神经元的神经细胞要么丢失，要么不能正常工作。皮质发育异常也被认为是这种疾病的主要原因。多能干细胞（PSC）是能够在实验室培养皿中产生所有类型的特化细胞（如神经细胞）的永久性细胞系。在这项研究中，我们的目标是开发从人PSC产生皮质中间神经元的方法。我们将设计文化，以包含在疾病中受影响的基本识别连接。我们相信，这种模型神经细胞培养将作为一个有价值的实验工具，以帮助我们了解如何引起神经精神疾病。我们也有兴趣使用这些干细胞衍生的特化细胞进行移植，并开发潜在的癫痫细胞疗法。

Neurological and psychiatric disease such as epilepsy and schizophrenia present a major burden to the modern society. Currently there are no effective treatments due to our limited knowledge on how the diseases are developed. It is clear however that a type of nerve cells called cortical interneurons are either lost or do not function properly in the brains of these patients. Abnormal cortical development has also been suggested as a major contributor to the cause of this disease. Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are permanent cell lines capable of giving rise to all types of specialised cells, such as nerve cells, in the laboratory culture dish. In this study, we aim to develop ways to generate cortical interneurons from human PSCs. We will design cultures to contain essential identified connections that affected in the diseases. We believe that this model nerve cell culture will serve as a valuable experimental tool to help us to understand how neuropsychiatric diseases are caused. We are also interested in using these stem cell derived specialised cells for transplantation and to develop potential cell therapy for epilepsy.