Jiaxi Zhou

TL;DR: An essential role for the serine/threonine protein kinase mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in regulating hESC long-term undifferentiated growth is demonstrated and a novel signaling mechanism by which mTOR controls fate decisions in hESCs is uncovered.

TL;DR: These findings provide a single‐step cost‐effective method for efficient derivation of neural progenitor cells in adherent culture from human pluripotent stem cells and should facilitate the use of stem cells in drug screening and regenerative medicine and study of early human neural development.

TL;DR: This review summarizes selected aspects of current work on stem cell mechanics with an emphasis on the influence of matrix stiffness, surface topography, cell shape and mechanical forces on the fate determination of mesenchymal stem cells and embryonic stem cells.

TL;DR: Nonmuscle myosin IIA and p120-catenin control E-cadherin–mediated cell–cell adhesions essential for hESC pluripotency and long-term survival.

TL;DR: This work develops a method for rapid and highly efficient differentiation of mature and functional MNs from human pluripotent stem cells by tightly modulating neural patterning temporally at a previously undefined primitive neural progenitor stage and shows that Islet-1 is essential for formation of maturity and functional human MNs, but does not regulate cell survival or suppress the V2a interneuron fate.