Neural stem cells aplenty
Sloan-Kettering Institute researchers have developed a protocol for inducing neural cells that could alleviate some of the manufacturing and supply issues hindering the development of therapies, drug screening platforms and disease models that use human neural stem cells.1 In contrast to other methods, the protocol consists of a defined set of neural-inducing factors, which makes it more amenable to a GMP setting and decreases the time to convert embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells into neural stem cells.
The drawbacks of current protocols include the use of feeder cells that secrete undefined neural-induction factors, unpredictable results from the formation of multicellular aggregates known as embryoid bodies, low yields and lengthy induction times.2,3...