Year 4

In the last year we have continued our efforts to transplant oligodendrocyte progenitors obtained by differentiation of human ES cells. Our progress in this area has been mixed because of substantial technical hurdles in consistent production of the oligodendrocyte progenitors from frozen stocks of cells. This will necessitate a no-cost extension for a small portion of the work to allow completion of the analysis of already transplanted animals.

We have made substantial progress as well in showing that these cells are capable of myelinating axons effectively in vitro. In addition, we’ve found that the human ES derived oligodendrocytes are capable of myelinating artificial nanofibers in vitro as well. This may serve as a useful platform in the future for drug discovery or other high throughput studies.

We have also identified an important novel molecular regulator of oligodendrocyte number and development and this work will continue into the future.