A Highly Efficient Nociceptor Differentiation Protocol for Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

This technology includes a robust and highly efficient protocol that differentiates human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) exclusively into nociceptors (also called sensory neurons) under chemically defined conditions. The use of hPSCs, including hESCs and iPSCs, holds great promise for drug screening, disease modeling, toxicology, and regenerative medicine. However, efficient and highly reproducible protocols have not been developed for most cell types that are relevant and urgently needed for translational applications. Systematic testing of various cell culture conditions and simultaneous manipulation of specific cell signaling pathways allows the scalable production of large numbers of nociceptors, including the use of automated cell culture systems.