as revealed SOX2 and YAP1 binding close to the Wnt9a gene. This suggests that YAP1 and SOX2 in dense C3 cells may activate Wnt9a expression in a positive feed forward loop to promote 3D growth. This contrasts with the TAF4-expressing MEFs, where Wnt9a expression is not induced under dense conditions, but Sfrp2 expression is strongly induced. Consequently, in dense TAF4-expressing MEFs, Wnt signalling is repressed, the opposite of what is observed in Taf42/2 MEFs. The loss of TAF4 COL6A3 Regulates Hippo Signalling therefore modifies Wnt9a and Sfrp expression to activate Wnt signalling in conditions of high density to promote 3D growth. Together our results support a model where loss of contact inhibition through diminished Hippo signalling allows the cells to form dense foci, while enhanced Wnt signalling is further required for full 3D growth. It is also interesting to note that high SOX2 expression is seen already in rare nuclei of low-density C3 cells. Thus TAF4 inactivation leads to heterogeneity in the cell population suggesting that it is the SOX2 high population that is competent to generate 3D foci under dense conditions. ability of TAF4 to control expression of critical components of the Hippo and Wnt pathways and a novel role of COL6A3 as ATRAregulated modulator of 3D growth and as regulator of gene expression. The midbrain dopaminergic neurons can be divided into the substantia nigra pars compacta and the ventral tegmental area. Neurons in these regions can PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19648736 be distinguished by pace-making activity that is driven by L-type calcium channels in the SNc and by sodium channels in the VTA. SNc neurons are typically studied in acute slice preparations of adult rodent brains and have a slow, spontaneous spike rate which is accompanied by a sub-threshold oscillation. This characteristic firing pattern makes them easily identifiable within a mixed population of neurons. mDA neurons are large, have unmyelinated axons and each cell can give rise to thousands of synapses. Studies of rat nigrostriatal neurons have revealed cumulative axonal length that reaches up to 70 cm and that a single SNc neuron innervates up to 6% of the striatum. Such a cell is under extensive bioenergetic demand, including maintenance of membrane potential and propagation of action potentials, placing these cells under high levels of metabolic CJ-023423 stress. However, it is not known to what extent these characteristic physiological properties contribute to the selective vulnerability of SNc dopaminergic neurons in the neurodegenerative disorder 
Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, a representative neurophysiological model of human SNc dopaminergic neurons will be useful in studying the molecular processes underlying PD. The generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells from somatic cells is enabled by the advent of a range of reprogramming technologies which express pluripotency factors . We have utilised this technology and reprogrammed iPSCs from normal human dermal fibroblasts. Characterisation of iPSC lines is technically challenging and time consuming. Here we have improved upon some of the original methods of iPSC characterisation and applied two high-throughput methods of characterisation of iPSC lines: single polymorphic nucleotide profiling for karyotyping and transcriptomic analysis for pluripotency. These are faster, more economical and more accessible techniques than the traditional methods for karyotyping and pluripotency. A Physiological Model of Human Dopam