DERIVATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF INDUCED PLURIPOTENT STEM CELL (iPSC) -DERIVED CORTICAL NEURONS

Abstract

ABSTRACT_x000D_ _x000D_ Brain is the most complex and least understood structure of the human body controlling and coordinating all functions of the human beings. It is mainly composed of neurons and glial cells. Loss or malfunction of either of these cell types cause neurological disorders. Disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington’s disease (HD), are characterized by intense cognitive or physical loss in the affected patients. In the neurodegenerative diseases, lack of access to relevant tissue types is the main obstacle to understand disease etiology and initiate valuable treatments. As such, effective model which integrates the genetic background with a similar phenotypic output is needed to study the development and progression of a human disease. Such models will not only enable us to understand disease mechanisms but also improve therapeutic strategies to treat them. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived neurological cells present such a model which hold high promise to uncover disease mechanisms and support developing potential therapies. Utilizing iPSCs to generate various types of neurons, glial cells and brain organoids from healthy and neurological disorder patients have unraveled many brain development and disease phenotypes in vitro. In the current thesis, we establish the generation and characterization of functional cortical neurons from iPSCs as a tool to study neurological disorders in a dish.

Date of Award	2020
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Health & Life Sciences