NCE

This is report on a no cost extension of six month.

We have successfully conducted the experiments proposed and published 6 papers. We would like to request 1 year no-cost extension of the CIRM grant for the following reasons.

We have extend beyond the original proposal and carried out some in vivo experiments. We have
1. Established stable human neural stem cell (hNSC) lines that stably expressing GFP for in vivo transplantation and tracking.
2. Confirmed the electrotaxis response of those transduced cells;
3. Developed proprietary techniques for stimulating and guiding transplanted cells in the brain;
4. Manufactured prototype of stimulator for in vivo use;
5. Successfully guided transplanted hNSCs in live rat brain.

We are currently analyzing those exciting data and are preparing manuscripts for high impact publication. We are preparing for early translational work. This will need to maintain active fund for use for analysis, publication purpose. We will be grateful if the CIRM grants this no-cost extension request. We have submitted three grant applications during this period of time and have published two important papers in high impact journals – one in EMBO Reports and one in Current Biology. Both papers have attracted media interview and commentary of experts.

The EMBO Reports paper proposes for the first time the existence of endogenous electric fields in the brain, which may guide migration of neural stem cells. This is a completely new mechanism no one proposed before and we have proved strong experimental evidences.

The Current Biology paper dissected the mechanisms of how cells sense and respond to a small electric fields.

We have submitted a patent application during this period of time.