Alternative Human Cell Models for Neuropsychiatric Research: Induced Neuronal Cells, Olfactory Epithelium, and Related Resources

Understanding the altered function of the human brain is central to neuropsychiatric research. Although studies in genetics, brain imaging, postmortem brains, and animal models have greatly expanded our knowledge about neuropsychiatric disorders, much less is known about the changes at the molecular and cellular levels in live brain cells. It is crucial to fill this gap to further advance our understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders and to move forward to the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Recently, induced pluripotent stem cells have been highlighted as key tools to study live brain cells from patients with brain disorders. There have been, however, alternative approaches to study live brain cells using cell fate conversion (direct reprogramming) or reprogramming-free methods. In this chapter, we will summarize these alternative human cell models and discuss their utilities and potentials in neuropsychiatric research.