Cornell Research Foundation Inc.

University of Rochester

Martha Windrem

Steven A Goldman

Neeta Singh Roy

The present invention is directed to a method of assessing in vivo human glial cell response to pathogenic infection that involves providing a non-human mammal either with at least 30% of its glial cells in its corpus callosum being human glial cells and/or with at least 5% of its glial cells its brain and brain stem white matter being human glial cells, subjecting the non-human mammal to pathogenic infection and assessing the in vivo human glial cell response to pathogenic infection. A method of identifying therapeutic agents for the pathogenic infection as well as forms of the non-human mammal having a pathogenic brain infection are also disclosed.

Human glial chimeric model for drug candidate assessment in human gliotrophic viral infections and progressive multifocal encephalopathy

One form of the present invention is directed to a method of remyelinating demyelinated axons by treating the demyelinated axons with oligodendrocyte progenitor cells under conditions which permit remyelination of the axons. Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method of treating a subject having a condition mediated by a loss of myelin or a loss of oligodendrocytes by administering to the subject oligodendrocyte progenitor cells under conditions effective to treat the condition mediated by a loss of myelin or a loss of oligodendrocytes. A further aspect of the present invention relates to an in vitro method of identifying and separating oligodendrocyte progenitor cells from a mixed population containing other mammalian brain or spinal cord cell types.

Myelination of congenitally dysmyelinated forebrains using oligodendrocyte progenitor cells

One form of the present invention is directed to a method of remyelinating demyelinated axons by treating the demyelinated axons with oligodendrocyte progenitor cells under conditions which permit remyelination of the axons. Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method of treating a subject having a condition mediated by a loss of myelin or a loss of oligodendrocytes by administering to the subject oligodendrocyte progenitor cells under conditions effective to treat the condition mediated by a loss of myelin or a loss of oligodendrocytes. A further aspect of the present invention relates to an in vitro method of identifying and separating oligodendrocyte progenitor cells from a mixed population containing other mammalian brain or spinal cord cell types. This further aspect of the present invention involves removing neurons and neuronal progenitor cells from the mixed population to produce a treated mixed population. Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells are then separated from the treated mixed population to form an enriched population of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells.

The present invention is directed to a non-human mammal with at least 30% of all of its glial cells in its corpus callosum being human glial cells and/or at least 5% of all of its glial cells in the white matter of its brain and/or brain stem being human glial cells. Methods of producing and using the non-human mammal are also disclosed.

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West Henrietta, NY, United States of America

Martha Windrem