Highlights d A hPSC-derived cell and organoid platform is used to study SARS-CoV-2 tissue tropism d Human pancreatic alpha and beta cells are permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection d Human hepatocyte and cholangiocyte organoids are permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection d hPSC-derived cells/organoids show similar chemokine responses as COVID-19 tissues

The mechanistic basis of gliogenesis, which occurs late in human development, is poorly understood. Here we identify nuclear factor IA (NFIA) as a molecular switch for inducing human glial competency. Transient expression of NFIA is sufficient to trigger glial competency of human pluripotent stem cell-derived neural stem cells within 5 days and to convert these cells into astrocytes in the presence of glial-promoting factors, compared to 3–6 months using current protocols. NFIA-induced astrocytes promote synaptogenesis, exhibit neuroprotective properties, display calcium transients in response to appropriate stimuli, and engraft in the adult mouse brain. Differentiation involves rapid but reversible chromatin remodeling, GFAP promoter demethylation, and a striking lengthening of the G1 cell cycle phase. Genetic or pharmacological manipulation of G1 length partially mimics NFIA function. We use the approach to generate astrocytes with region-specific or reactive features. Our study defines key mechanisms of the gliogenic switch and enables the rapid production of human astrocytes for disease modeling and regenerative medicine.

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most deadly type of cancer in the United States and worldwide. Although new therapy is available, the survival rate of NSCLC patients remains low. One hallmark of cancer cells is defects in the apoptotic cell death program. In this study, we investigate the role of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) family members Bcl-2, Bcl-

Aberrant inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS) has been implicated as a major player in the pathogenesis of human neurodegenerative disease. We developed a novel approach to derive microglia from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) and built a defined hPSC-derived tri-culture system containing pure populations of hPSC-derived microglia, astrocytes, and neurons to dissect cellular crosstalk along the neuroinflammatory axis in vitro . We used the tri-culture system to model neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s Disease with hPSCs harboring the APP SWE +/+ mutation and their isogenic control. We found that complement C3, a protein that is increased under inflammatory conditions and implicated in synaptic loss, is potentiated in tri-culture and further enhanced in APP SWE +/+ tri-cultures due to microglia initiating reciprocal signaling with astrocytes to produce excess C3. Our study defines the major cellular players contributing to increased C3 in AD and presents a broadly applicable platform to study neuroinflammation in human disease.

Here we report the development of a ternary version of the LexA::VP16/LexAop system in which the DNA-binding and trans-activating moieties are independently targeted using distinct promoters to achieve highly restricted, intersectional expression patterns. This Split LexA system can be concatenated with the Gal4/upstream activating sequence system to refine the expression patterns of existing Gal4 lines with minimal genetic manipulations.