Neural Research

Within the complex realm of neurological diseases, neural stem cells and precursor cells have incredible potential to not only replace injured or lost neurons, but also to act as delivery vehicles for compounds to the brain. Qi, et al. (2017) describes a protocol in which a cocktail of seven small molecules (including LDN193189, SB431542, XAV939, and CHIR99021) allow for the creation of functional cortical neurons capable of producing long-range axonal projections. These cells begin to show mature neural characteristics in just 16 days, and later become fully functional with electrophysiological properties and full network integration in-vivo.