Scientists with the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA produced a highly pure, large quantity of functioning neurons from human embryonic stem cells. This will allow them to create models of and study diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, prefrontal dementia and schizophrenia.

Researchers previously had been able to produce neurons from human embryonic stem cells. However, the percentage of neurons in the cell culture was not high and the neurons were difficult to isolate from the other cells.