Culturing neural progenitor cells from the adult rodent brain has become routine^, and is also possible from human fetal tissue^,, but expansion of these cells from postnatal and adult human tissue, although preferred for ethical reasons, has encountered problems^,,,. Here we describe the isolation and successful propagation of neural progenitor cells from human postmortem tissues and surgical specimens. Although the relative therapeutic merits of adult and fetal progenitor cells still need to be assessed, our results may extend the application of these progenitor cells in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.