Figure 1.

Stem cell culture models of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection. Cells collected from identified HEV-positive individuals can be reprogrammed to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Relevant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can be repaired or introduced into established human embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cell (hESC)/iPSC lines using CRISPR-Cas9, followed by differentiation to the cell type of interest. Differentiated cells can be directly infected with HEV isolates from patients or animals for modeling virus–host interactions in a dish.