The first edition of Protocols for Neural Cell Culture was published in 1992 and the second edition in 1997. Originally, the publication grew outofprotocols used in the Tissue Culture Course given at the University of Saskatchewan. The course was patterned on those given by the Tissue CultureAssociation, first in Toronto, Canada, in 1948, then in Cooperstown, NY, then Denver, CO, and finally in Madison, WI, where the course ended in 1964. The course in Saskatchewan began in 1963 as a month-long international course that included both animal and plant tissue cultures. Over the years the course underwent specialization, first being limited to animal tissue culture, then to an intensive one-week general course. This led to one-week courses especially designed for tissue culture for the study of cancer or of the cardiovascular or the nervous system. In 1989, the Saskatchewan course became part of the Tissue Culture Training Facility of the Neuroscience Network of the Canadian Network of Centres of Excellence. The course and the Training Facility ceased to exist in 1997. The faculty for the Saskatchewan course was drawn from the best labora tories in the world and laboratory protocols from those centers were thoroughly tested in a student laboratory setting for many years.

Now in two volumes, this completely updated and expanded edition of Embryonic Stem Cells: Methods and Protocols provides a diverse collection of readily reproducible cellular and molecular protocols for the manipulation of nonhuman embryonic stem cells. Volume one, Embryonic Stem Cell Protocols: Isolation and Characterization, Second Edition, provides a diverse collection of readily reproducible cellular and molecular protocols for the isolation, maintenance, and characterization of embryonic stem cells. The second volume, Embryonic Stem Cell Protocols: Differentiation Models, Second Edition, covers state-of-the-art methods for deriving many types of differentiating cells from ES cells. Together, the two volumes illuminate for both novices and experts our current understanding of the biology of embryonic stem cells and their utility in normal tissue homeostasis and regenerative medicine applications.

This volume is designed to be kept close at hand as a ready reference and a guide to laboratory procedures. It is based on tissue culture manuals used for a number of years at international courses on tissue culture at the University of Saskatchewan, made possible by the generous support of the Canadian Council of Animal Care and the Medical Research Council of Canada. Sergey Fedoroff Arleen Richardson The second edition of Protocols for Neural Cell Culture adheres to the prin ciples enunciated in the first edition, but the content has been extensively revised and expanded. Two new chapters have been added to reflect the increased interest in the development and differentiation of the nervous system and in the reconstruction of its circuitry in tissue culture. One chapter deals with slice cul tures in which the organization of the nervous system is preserved. When slice cultures are combined with explant cultures, afferent and efferent projections can be reconstructed. The other chapter deals with aggregating neural cell cul tures, in which "minibrains" can form. Theses are small, uniformly sized spheres of nervous tissue, usually having nerve cells in the center and astrocytes, oligo dendrocytes, and microglia in the periphery. Such cultures can be used to study neutral cell interactions in an organized milieu and for qualitative as well as quantitative studies at biochemical and molecular levels.

This is the first of three planned volumes in the Methods in Enzymology series on the topic of stem cells. This volume is a unique anthology of stem cell techniques written by experts from the top laboratories in the world. The contributors not only have hands-on experience in the field but often have developed the original approaches that they share with great attention to detail. The chapters provide a brief review of each field followed by a "cookbook and handy illustrations. The collection of protocols includes the isolation and maintenance of stem cells from various species using "conventional and novel methods, such as derivation of ES cells from single blastomeres, differentiation of stem cells into specific tissue types, isolation and maintenance of somatic stem cells, stem cell-specific techniques and approaches to tissue engineering using stem cell derivatives. The reader will find that some of the topics are covered by more than one group of authors and complement each other. Comprehensive step-by-step protocols and informative illustrations can be easily followed by even the least experienced researchers in the field, and allow the setup and troubleshooting of these state-of-the-art technologies in other laboratories.* Provides complete coverage spanning from derivation/isolation of stem cells, and including differentiation protocols, characterization and maintenance of derivatives and tissue engineering * Presents the latest most innovative technologies * Addresses therapeutic relevance including FDA compliance and tissue engineering

Defined as, “The science about the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage,” embryology has been a mainstay at universities throughout the world for many years. Throughout the last century, embryology became overshadowed by experimental-based genetics and cell biology, transforming the field into developmental biology, which replaced embryology in Biology departments in many universities. Major contributions in this young century in the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry and genomics were integrated with both embryology and developmental biology to provide an understanding of the molecular portrait of a “development cell.” That new integrated approach is known as stem-cell biology; it is an understanding of the embryology and development together at the molecular level using engineering, imaging and cell culture principles, and it is at the heart of this seminal book. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine: From Molecular Embryology to Tissue Engineering is completely devoted to the basic developmental, cellular and molecular biological aspects of stem cells as well as their clinical applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. It focuses on the basic biology of embryonic and cancer cells plus their key involvement in self-renewal, muscle repair, epigenetic processes, and therapeutic applications. In addition, it covers other key relevant topics such as nuclear reprogramming induced pluripotency and stem cell culture techniques using novel biomaterials. A thorough introduction to stem-cell biology, this reference is aimed at graduate students, post-docs, and professors as well as executives and scientists in biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

Current pharmacotherapies and surgical intervention provide limited benefit in the treatment of neural injuries or halting disease progression and has resulted in significant hope for the successes of stem cell research. The properties of stem cells render them appropriate for cell replacement therapy, endogenous repair, disease modeling as well as high-throughput drug screening and development. Such applications will aide in increasing our knowledge and developing treatments for neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s diseases as well as neural traumas including ischemic brain damage and traumatic brain injury. This Frontiers Research topic encouraged contributions from the general field of stem cell biology, with a particular emphasis on utilizing these cells to develop new therapies for neural repair. Related articles deal with issues such as: breakthroughs in stem cell proliferation/differentiation methodologies, using pluripotent and neural stem cells for transplantation and endogenous repair, the use of patient derived stem cells for disease modeling, using stem cells for drug discovery as well as the ethical issues related to the use of stem cells.

This is a fast-moving field, and these detailed methods will help drive advances in stem cell research. The editors have hand selected step-by-step methods from researchers with extensive reputations and expertise.This volume, as part of the Reliable Lab Solutions series, delivers busy researchers a handy, time-saving source for the best methods and protocols in stem cells. - Provides powerful research opportunities for those interested in perusing work in pluripotent stem cells, disease modeling, and other aspects of basic stem cell research - Refines, organizes and updates popular methods from flagship series, Methods in Enzymology - Highlights top downloads, enhanced with author tips and tricks and pitfalls to avoid

This new series, based on a bi-annual conference and its topics, represents a major contribution to the emerging science of cancer research and regenerative medicine. Each volume brings together some of the most pre-eminent scientists working on cancer biology, cancer treatment, cancer diagnosis, cancer prevention and regenerative medicine to share information on currently ongoing work which will help shape future therapies. These volumes are invaluable resources not only for already active researchers or clinicians but also for those entering these fields, plus those in industry. Stem Cells: Biology and Engineering is a proceedings volume which reflects papers presented at the Innovations in Regenerative Medicine and Cancer Research conference; taken with its companion volume Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine it provides a complete overview of the papers from that meeting of international experts.

This book collects the most effective and cutting-edge methods and protocols for deriving and culturing human embryonic and adult stem cells—in one handy resource. This groundbreaking book follows the tradition of previous books in the Culture of Specialized Cells Series—each methods and protocols chapter is laid out exactly like the next, with stepwise protocols, preceded by specific requirements for that protocol, and a concise discussion of methods illustrated by data. The editors describe a limited number of representative techniques across a wide spectrum of stem cells from embryonic, newborn, and adult tissue, yielding an all-encompassing and versatile guide to the field of stem cell biology and culture. The book includes a comprehensive list of suppliers for all equipment used in the protocols presented, with websites available in an appendix. Additionally, there is a chapter on quality control, and other chapters covering legal and ethical issues, cryopreservation, and feeder layer culture. This text is a one-stop resource for all researchers, clinical scientists, teachers, and students involved in this crucial area of study.

This book delineates how systems biology, pharmacogenomic, and behavioral approaches, as applied to neurodevelopmental toxicology, provide a structure to arrange information in a biological model. The text reviews and discusses approaches that can be used as effective tools to dissect mechanisms underlying pharmacological and toxicological phenomena associated with the exposure to drugs or environmental toxicants during development. The book intends to elaborate functional outcomes of component-to-component relationships using rodent and nonhuman primate in vitro and in vivo models that allow for the directional and quantitative description of the complete organism in response to environmental perturbations. In addition, attention has also been directed to some of the more recent methodologies, including genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, applied in the evolutionary neurobiological field.