Dynamic Association of NUP98 with the Human Genome Investigators showed at a genome-wide level that the nuclear pore protein NUP98 associates with developmentally regulated genes active during human embryonic stem cell differentiation. [PLoS Genet] Full Article Cell-Laden Hydrogels in Integrated Microfluidic Devices for Long-Term Cell Culture and Tubulogenesis Assays A hydrogel biochip combining microfluidic mixing and orthogonal supplementation strategies was developed and validated to allow facile generation of libraries of optically transparent 3D culture microenvironments. Live, on-chip tracing of embryonic stem cell differentiation and endothelial cell tubulogenesis confirmed that the platform can be used to both create communities of discrete 3D microenvironments as well as to locally monitor subsequent divergent responses at both single cell and multi-cell scales. [Small] Abstract Structural and Functional Maturation of Cardiomyocytes Derived from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Researchers tested the hypothesis that prolonged in vitro culture of human embryonic and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes would result in the maturation of their structural and contractile properties to a more adult-like phenotype. [Stem Cells Dev] Abstract Nkx2-5 Mediates Differential Cardiac Differentiation through Interaction with Hoxa10 Investigators described a novel, transient and asymmetric cardiac-specific expression pattern of the posterior Hox genes, Hoxa9 and Hoxa10 and utilized the embryonic stem cell/embryoid body model system to illustrate that Hoxa10 impairs cardiac differentiation. [Stem Cells Dev] Abstract Cell-Type-Specific Predictive Network Yields Novel Insights into Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Self-Renewal and Cell Fate Scientists aimed to clarify the molecular foundations of mouse embryonic stem cell self-renewal by applying a proven Bayesian network machine learning approach to integrate high-throughput data for protein function discovery. [PLoS One] Full Article Attenuation of Hind-Limb Ischemia in Mice with Endothelial-Like Cells Derived from Different Sources of Human Stem Cells Researchers differentiated functional endothelial-like cells from human bone marrow mononuclear cells, human embryonic stem cells and human induced pluripotent stem cells, and compared their in vitro tube formation, migration and cytokine expression profiles, and in vivo capacity to attenuate hind-limb ischemia in mice. [PLoS One] Full Article An RNA Tool Kit to Study the Status of Mouse ES Cells: Sex Determination and Stemness The authors illustrated how a small set of key coding and non-coding RNAs can be exploited as dynamic and sensitive markers of the stemness and/or the differentiation status of male or female mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell lines. [Methods] Abstract Oxygen-Controlled Automated Neural Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells This article describes, for the first time, an automation platform capable of maintaining oxygen tension control during both the cell-culture and liquid-handling stages of a 2D embryonic stem cell differentiation process. [Regen Med] Abstract Epigenetic Reprogramming of Human Embryonic Stem Cells into Skeletal Muscle Cells and Generation of Contractile Myospheres Researchers showed that selective absence of the SWI/SNF component BAF60C (encoded by SMARCD3) confers on human embryonic stem cells resistance to MyoD-mediated activation of skeletal myogenesis. [Cell Rep] Abstract | Graphical Abstract Homologous Recombination DNA Repair Genes Play a Critical Role in Reprogramming to a Pluripotent State Investigators showed that the ectopic expression of reprogramming factors increases the level of phosphorylated histone H2AX, one of the earliest cellular responses to DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Additional mechanistic studies uncovered a direct role of the homologous recombination (HR) pathway, a pathway essential for error-free repair of DNA DSBs, in reprogramming. Finally, deletion of the tumor suppressor p53 rescues the reprogramming phenotype in HR-deficient cells primarily through the restoration of reprogramming-dependent defects in cell proliferation and apoptosis. [Cell Rep] Abstract | Graphical Abstract |