Development and Implementation of a Bilingual Counseling Certificate Program

The ever-growing population of Spanish-speakers in the United States increases the need for counselors to provide services in languages other than English. Yet, very few counselor education programs offer training specifically aimed at providing bilingual counseling services. The authors introduce important elements of bilingual counseling training and describe the implementation of these features into a certificate designed to train competent, bilingual clinical mental health and school counselors. Implications for counseling pedagogy, practice, supervision, and research are discussed

An Eye Organoid Approach Identifies Six3 Suppression of R-spondin 2 as a Critical Step in Mouse Neuroretina Differentiation

Summary: Recent advances in self-organizing, 3-dimensional tissue cultures of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provided an in vitro model that recapitulates many aspects of the in vivo developmental steps. Using Rax-GFP-expressing ESCs, newly generated Six3−/− iPSCs, and conditional null Six3delta/f;Rax-Cre ESCs, we identified Six3 repression of R-spondin 2 (Rspo2) as a required step during optic vesicle morphogenesis and neuroretina differentiation. We validated these results in vivo by showing that transient ectopic expression of Rspo2 in the anterior neural plate of transgenic mouse embryos was sufficient to inhibit neuroretina differentiation. Additionally, using a chimeric eye organoid assay, we determined that Six3 null cells exert a non-cell-autonomous repressive effect during optic vesicle formation and neuroretina differentiation. Our results further validate the organoid culture system as a reliable and fast alternative to identify and evaluate genes involved in eye morphogenesis and neuroretina differentiation in vivo. : Using an eye organoid culture system, Takata et al. identified the Wnt signaling partner R-spondin 2 as a critical player in neuroretina fate determination in vivo and in vitro. They also validated these findings using newly derived conditional null Six3delta/f;Rax-Cre ESCs from mouse blastocysts. Keywords: eye, optic vesicles, Six3, pluripotent stem cells, organoids, neuroretina, R-spondins, Wnt, mouse, Six3 conditional knockout ESC