Human Neural Stem Cells (IMAGE)

Penn State

Human Neural Stem Cells

Caption

Difficult-to-study diseases such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and autism now can be probed more safely and effectively thanks to an innovative new method for obtaining mature brain cells called neurons from reprogrammed skin cells, developed in research led by biologist Gong Chen at Penn State University. The research offers the promise of direct disease modeling, allowing for the creation, in a Petri dish, of mature human neurons that behave a lot like neurons that grow naturally in the human brain. In this image, human neural stem cells (shown in red), reprogrammed originally from adult skin cells, differentiate efficiently into brain cells (shown in green), after being cultured with star-shaped cells called astrocytes.

Credit

Chen lab, Penn State University

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