Recent reports have highlighted several parameters of the neurosphere culture or assay system which render it unreliable as a quantitative in vitro assay for measuring neural stem cell (NSC) frequency. The single-step semi-solid based assay, the Neural Colony Forming Cell (NCFC) assay is an assay which was developed to overcome some of the limitations of the neurospheres assay in terms of accurately measuring NSC numbers. The NCFC assay allows the discrimination between NSCs and progenitors by the size of colonies they produce (i.e. their proliferative potential). The NCFC assay and other improved tissue culture tools offer further advances in the promising application of NSCs for therapeutic use.