Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Murine skin and soft tissue infection model is utilized for assessing the virulence function of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the host immunological responses. Here, we presented a subcutaneous infection model for skin and soft tissue infection.

This article details the procedures for optical imaging analysis of the tumor-targeted nanoparticle, HerDox. In particular, detailed use of the multimode imaging device for detecting tumor targeting and assessing tumor penetration is described here.

An example of a nano drug based on polymalic acid is presented towards the rational design of personalized medicine that is applicable to cancer. It describes the synthesis of a nano drug to treat Her2-positive human breast cancer in a nude mouse.

This protocol describes a novel mechanical chopping method that allows the expansion of spherical neural stem and progenitor cell aggregates without dissociation to a single cell suspension.  Maintaining cell/cell contact allows rapid and stable growth for over 40 passages.

The pial surface is a unique progenitor zone in the CNS that is receiving increasing attention. Herein, we detail a method for rapid genetic manipulation of this progenitor zone using a modified electroporation method. This procedure can be used for cellular and molecular investigations of cell lineages and signaling pathways involved in cell differentiation and to elucidate the fate and properties of daughter cells.

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is a major human pathogen that causes liver disorders, including cirrhosis and cancer. An HCV infectious cell culture system is essential for understanding the molecular mechanism of HCV replication and developing new therapeutic approaches. Here we describe a protocol to investigate various stages of the HCV replication cycle.

Fertile chicken eggs are widely used to produce large amounts of human influenza A virus as they provide a convenient and cost-effective system to prove high yields of virus.

Implantation of autologous and allogeneic bone grafts constitute accepted approaches to treat major craniofacial bone loss. Yet the effect of graft composition on the interplay among neovascularization, cell differentiation and bone formation is unclear. We present a multimodal imaging protocol aimed to elucidate the angiogenesis-osteogenesis interdependence at the graft proximity.

This article presents a rapid and simple method for administering bleomycin directly into the mouse trachea via intubation. Key advantages of this method are that it is highly reproducible, easy to master, and does not require specialized equipment or lengthy recovery times.

An example of adenoviral gene therapy in the human diabetic organ-cultured corneas is presented towards the normalization of delayed wound healing and markedly reduced epithelial stem cell marker expression in these corneas. It also describes the optimization of this process in stem cell-enriched limbal epithelial cultures.

Zika Virus (ZIKV), an emerging pathogen, is linked to fetal developmental abnormalities and microcephaly. The establishment of an effective infectious cell culture system is crucial for studies of ZIKV replication as well as vaccine and drug development. In this study, various virological assays pertaining to ZIKV are illustrated and discussed.

The goal of this protocol is to generate a nude rat osteoporosis-related vertebral compression fracture model that can be longitudinally evaluated in vivo using a semiautomated microcomputed tomography-based quantitative structural analysis.

This protocol describes the value of dual energy CT and PET/CT imaging methods in tumor imaging and efficacy evaluation. This article demonstrates the research methods and results acquired by dual energy CT and PET/CT to evaluate the gene regulation and targeted treatment of gastric cancer peritoneal metastasis.

A method is described for fractionation of insoluble and soluble mutant huntingtin species from mouse brain and cell culture. The method described is useful for characterization and quantification of huntingtin protein flux and aids in analyzing protein homeostasis in disease pathogenesis and in the presence of perturbations

We demonstrate how to identify and isolate 6 subsets of myeloid progenitors from murine bone marrow using a combination of magnetic and fluorescence sorting (MACS and FACS). This protocol can be used for in vitro culture assays (methylcellulose or liquid cultures), in vivo adoptive transfer experiments, and RNA/protein analyses.

Here we present a protocol to perform polysome profiling on the isolated perfused mouse heart. We describe methods for heart perfusion, polysome profiling, and analysis of the polysome fractions with respect to mRNAs, miRNAs, and the polysome proteome.

Here, we describe two extracellular vesicle isolation protocols, ultrafiltration centrifugation and ultracentrifugation with density gradient centrifugation, to isolate extracellular vesicles from murine bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples. The extracellular vesicles derived from murine bronchoalveolar lavage fluid by both methods are quantified and characterized.

We describe a method to conduct single-neuron recordings with simultaneous eye tracking in humans. We demonstrate the utility of this method and illustrate how we used this approach to obtain neurons in the human medial temporal lobe that encode targets of a visual search.

A cognitive training intervention in elderly population together with the assessment of the pre training cognitive abilities is presented. We show two versions of training - experimental and active control - and demonstrate their effects on the array of cognitive tests.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a multicellular neurovascular unit tightly regulating brain homeostasis. By combining human iPSCs and organ-on-chip technologies, we have generated a personalized BBB chip, suitable for disease modeling and CNS drug penetrability predictions. A detailed protocol is described for the generation and operation of the BBB chip.

This article provides a detailed methodology for tissue dissociation and cellular fractionation approaches allowing enrichment of viable epithelial cells from proximal and distal regions of the human lung. Herein these approaches are applied for the functional analysis of lung epithelial progenitor cells through the use of 3D organoids culture models.

In this manuscript, we discuss a novel method to sample and analyze the duodenal microbiome. This method provides an accurate depiction of microbial diversity and composition in the duodenum and could be useful for further investigation of the duodenal microbiome.

The present protocol describes a single M213L mutation in Gja1 that retains full-length Connexin43 generation but prevents translation of the smaller GJA1-20k internally translated isoform.

Utilizing an immunocompetent, autochthonous tumor model driven by common patient mutations for preclinical testing is critical for immunotherapeutic testing. This protocol describes a method to generate brain tumor mouse models using electroporation-based delivery of plasmid DNA that represent common patient mutations, thus providing an accurate, reproducible, and consistent mouse model.

This article describes a procedure to produce iTenocytes by generating iPSC-derived mesenchymal stromal cells with combined overexpression of Scleraxis using a lentiviral vector and uniaxial stretching via a 2D bioreactor.

Primary sensory areas in the neocortex exhibit unique spontaneous activities during development. This article describes how to visualize individual neuron activities and primary sensory areas to analyze area-specific synchronous activities in neonatal mice in vivo.

We have established a split-luciferase reassembly assay to monitor the endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria contacts in live cells. Using this assay, we describe a protocol to quantitatively measure the level of these inter-organelle couplings in HEK293T cells, under the condition of chemical treatment.