Authors: Monique Schukking, Helen Cristina Miranda, Cleber A Trujillo, Priscilla Davidson Negraes, Alysson Renato Muotri
Summary: The study of variations in human neurodevelopment and cognition is limited by the availability of experimental models. While animal models only partially recapitulate the human brain development, genetics, and heterogeneity; human induced pluripotent stem cells can provide an attractive experimental alternative. However, cellular reprogramming and further differentiation techniques are costly and time-consuming and therefore, studies using this approach are often limited to a small number of samples. Here we describe a rapid and cost-effective method to reprogram somatic cells and the direct generation of cortical organoids in a 96-well format. Our data is a proof-of-principle that a large cohort of samples can be generated for experimental assessment of the human neural development.
Source: Stem Cells and Development, 2018