Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Employing iPSC Technologies to Define and Treat Childhood Brain Diseases

This book contains a compendium of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) articles and reviews concerning state of the art technologies and how they are being applied to human neurodevelopmental disorders.  With the establishment of effective technologies to produce iPSCs and their derivatives, like neural precursors, neurons, and glia, researchers have new platforms to study neurodevelopmental disorders.  iPSC technology enables researchers to study how human neurons develop in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, providing an unparalleled opportunity to investigate their etiology.  In turn, researchers have now begun to understand the underlying molecular and cellular pathways that contribute to human diseases. iPSCs technologies also provide an emerging tool for future translational studies and disease classification.  The chapters will emphasize how among the diverse idiopathic and genetic disorders, there are common clinical as well as cellular and molecular phenotypes.