University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford 2 articles published in JoVE Biology Demonstration of the DNA Fiber Assay for Investigating DNA Damage and Repair Dynamics Induced by Nanoparticles Shirali Patel1, Paul Chastain1,2, Divya Bijukumar1 1Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford, 2Department of Health Sciences Education, University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford The methodology assists in the analysis of variation in DNA replication dynamics in the presence of nanoparticles. Different methodologies can be adopted based on the cytotoxicity level of the material of interest. In addition, a description of the image analysis is provided to help in DNA fiber analysis. Neuroscience Analyzing Mitochondrial Transport and Morphology in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neurons in Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia Yongchao Mou1,2, Sukhada Mukte1, Eric Chai1, Joshua Dein3, Xue-Jun Li1,2 1Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford, 2Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, 3MD Program, University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford Impaired mitochondrial transport and morphology are involved in various neurodegenerative diseases. The presented protocol uses induced pluripotent stem cell-derived forebrain neurons to assess mitochondrial transport and morphology in hereditary spastic paraplegia. This protocol allows characterization of mitochondrial trafficking along axons and analysis of their morphology, which will facilitate the study of neurodegenerative disease.