Klinikum Idar-Oberstein 1 article published in JoVE Developmental Biology An Enzyme- and Serum-free Neural Stem Cell Culture Model for EMT Investigation Suited for Drug Discovery Martin H. M. Sailer1, Durga Sarvepalli2, Catherine Brégère3, Urs Fisch3, Marin Guentchev4, Michael Weller6, Raphael Guzman3, Bernhard Bettler1, Arkasubhra Ghosh*2, Gregor Hutter*5 1Dept. of Biomedicine, Pharmacenter, University of Basel, 2Molecular Signalling and Gene Therapy, Narayana Nethralaya Foundation, Narayana Health City, 3Brain Ischemia and Regeneration, Department of Biomedicine, University Hospital Basel, 4Department of Neurosurgery, Klinikum Idar-Oberstein, 5Department of Neurosurgery and Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University, 6Department of Neurology, Laboratory of Molecular Neuro Oncology, University Hospital of Zurich Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) allows cancers to become invasive. To investigate EMT, a neural stem cell (NSC)-based in vitro model devoid of serum and enzymes is described. This standardized system allows quantitative and qualitative assessment of cell migration, gene and protein expression. The model is suited for drug discovery.