Engineering neural tissue using pluripotent stem cells

大脑和脊髓由不同种类的细胞组成。复制这些复杂的结构为我们提供了一个重要的机会来发现这些组织是如何在体内形成的。这样的工程化神经组织可以用于药物筛选，而不是捐赠的人体组织。组织工程的一种流行策略是使用生物材料支架传递信号，促进干细胞分化为神经组织。我的团队致力于人类诱导多能干细胞(HiPSCs)，即成年细胞重新编程为一种状态，在这种状态下，它们可以成为生物体中发现的任何类型的细胞。这一特性使其成为组织工程的极佳细胞来源。我的团队确定了一些化学和物理线索，推动HiPSCs分化为神经组织，这是本研究计划的起点。然而，目前使用HiPSCs设计神经组织的方法需要冗长的、劳动密集型的方案。

Different kind of cells make up the brain and spinal cord. Replicating these complex structures provides us with a significant opportunity to discover how such tissues form in the body. Such engineered neural tissues can be used for applications in pharmacological screening instead of donated human tissues. One popular strategy for tissue engineering uses biomaterial scaffolds to deliver signals that promote stem cells to differentiate into neural tissue. My group works with human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), adult cells reprogrammed into a state where they can become any type of cell found in an organism. This property makes them an excellent cell source for tissue engineering. My group identified a number of chemical and physical cues that drive the differentiation of hiPSCs into neural tissue, which serves as a starting point for this research program. However, current methods for engineering neural tissue using hiPSCs require lengthy, labor intensive protocols.