June 2015: This Month in JoVE - Celebrating JoVE's 100th Issue

Protocol

Practical Methodology of Cognitive Tasks Within a Navigational Assessment

Manon Robillard¹, Chantal Mayer-Crittenden¹, Annie Roy-Charland², Michèle Minor-Corriveau¹, Roxanne Bélanger¹

¹Speech-Language Pathology Program, Laurentian University, ²Psychology Department, Laurentian University

Children who have complex communication needs can benefit from the use of a speech-generating device (SGD). Cognitive skills were identified as having an impact on the ability to navigate between levels of SGDs. This protocol describes the steps needed for Speech-language Pathologists to assess cognitive skills and navigational abilities.

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task

Barbara Sargent¹, Hendrik Reimann², Masayoshi Kubo³, Linda Fetters¹

¹Division of Biokinesiology & Physical Therapy at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, ²Department of Kinesiology, Temple University, ³Department of Physical Therapy, Niigata University of Health and Welfare

A method is described in which 3-4 month old infants learn a task by discovery and their leg movements are captured to quantify the learning process.

Isolation of Primary Human Colon Tumor Cells from Surgical Tissues and Culturing Them Directly on Soft Elastic Substrates for Traction Cytometry

M. Yakut Ali¹, Sandeep V. Anand¹, Krishnarao Tangella^2,3, Davendra Ramkumar^2,3, Taher A. Saif^1,4

¹Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ²College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ³Provena Covenant Medical Centre, ⁴Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

A protocol is described to extract primary human cells from surgical colon tumor and normal tissues. The isolated cells are then cultured on soft elastic substrates (polyacrylamide hydrogels) functionalized by an extracellular matrix protein, and embedded with fluorescent microbeads. Traction cytometry is performed to assess cellular contractile stresses.

Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Frozen Buffy Coats using Non-integrating Episomal Plasmids

Viviana Meraviglia*¹, Alessandra Zanon*¹, Alexandros A. Lavdas¹, Christine Schwienbacher¹, Rosamaria Silipigni², Marina Di Segni², Huei-Sheng Vincent Chen³, Peter P. Pramstaller¹, Andrew A. Hicks¹, Alessandra Rossini¹

¹Center for Biomedicine, European Academy Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC), ²Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Fondazione IRCCS Ca´ Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, ³Del E. Webb Center for Neuroscience, Aging & Stem Cell Research, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) represent a source of patient-specific tissues for clinical applications and basic research. Here, we present a detailed protocol to reprogram human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) obtained from frozen buffy coats into viral-free iPSCs using non-integrating episomal plasmids.