Biomedical researchers have long sought ways to repair spinal cord damage with the holy grail of the pursuit being the reconstitution of lost function. In the mid 1990’s with the successful culture of human embryonic stem cells, and about a decade later induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), the field was energized with a potential new approach to replace the lost neurons and glia cells and restoring neural connections.  In the decades since that discovery some progress has been made, however many hurdles remain, including establishing a functional synaptic connection between the transplanted and host neurons which is crucial for motor function recovery. To boost therapeutic outcomes our guests tested an ex vivo gene therapy to promote synapse formation between the donor and host neurons by expressing the synthetic excitatory synapse organizer CPTX in hiPSCs-derived neural stem and progenitor cells. Tune in to learn what they discovered.