Speaker: Catherine Fonder, Ph.D. graduate candidate in the Sakaguchi Lab 

Major: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology

Major professor: Morrill Professor Don Sakaguchi

Title: "Effect of external stimulation on neural stem cell behavior"

Abstract: Neurodegenerative diseases and brain injury often result in significant neuronal loss and cognitive deficits. Finding a differentiation protocol that would be scalable, cost-effective, and efficient has been a focus for researchers developing tissue and cellular engineering strategies. Utilizing external stimulation such as electrical stimulation (ES) or magnetic stimulation (MS) has become a promising method for guiding the differentiation of neural stem/progenitor cells (NSCs). In this work, adult hippocampal progenitor cells (AHPCs) were used to evaluate the effects of ES and MS on modulating cell proliferation and differentiation in vitro. Our work revealed that both ES and MS can be used effectively to guide the differentiation of AHPCs into specific cell types in a parameter-dependent manner while maintaining high cell viability. Both stimulation methods resulted in enhanced differentiation of the AHPCs into both neuronal and oligodendrocyte cell types. We achieved this enhanced differentiation after only 7 to 10 days of ES or MS, respectively. In collaboration with engineers, our group has also developed a stem cell culturing platform for the study of various neurological disorders in vitro as a potential drug screening tool. We were able to successfully culture AHPCs as three-dimensional non-adherent neurospheres within individual chambers in a novel microfluidic device. The AHPC neurospheres remained viable within the devices and were able to proliferate and retain their ability to differentiate. Overall, this research provides evidence that external stimulation techniques such as ES and MS can be effective strategies for guiding the differentiation of NSCs. Using these differentiation strategies in combination with microfluidic cell culture platforms may lead to the development of more effective strategies for neural rescue or repair.