Year 1

Our project goals are to define the factors involved in choroid plexus epithelial (CPe) cell development in mice, then apply this information to generate CPe cells from mouse and human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) for clinical applications. The first Aim is to determine whether a factor known as Fgf8 promotes CPe fate, the second Aim addresses whether the Lhx2 transcription factor inhibits CPe, and the third Aim is to generate human CPe cells in culture. Significant progress on these Aims has been made during this first year of the grant. Most importantly, multiple lines of evidence for CPe differentiation from both mouse and human ESCs have been obtained. In addition, the genetically-engineered mESC lines needed for the Lhx2 studies in Aim 2 have been successfully generated and validated. Our major goals for the next year are to further replicate, confirm, and optimize the generation of CPe cells in our mouse and human ESC cultures, and to perform the initial experiments that should determine whether manipulating Fgf8 and Lhx2 in the ESC cultures will enhance CPe generation in culture.