Patent ID: 8895302

Claim:
A method of creating a population of GABA projection neurons comprising the steps of a) culturing primate pluripotent stem cells under serum-free conditions to obtain Pax6+/Sox1 − primitive neural stem cells; b) culturing the Pax6 + /Sox1 − primitive neural stem cells to in the presence of 100-200 ng/ml Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) or 0.5-0.75 μM purmorphamine to obtain a cell population comprising at least 80% Meis2 + /Gsh2 + /Nkx2.1 − GABA progenitors, and c) culturing the GABA progenitors in the presence of valproic acid (VPA) and neurotrophic factors selected from the group consisting of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glial-derived neurotrophic factors (GDNF), insulin-like growth factor (IGF1), and cyclic AMP (cAMP) to obtain a cell population comprising at least 70% GABK + /DARPP32 + /Meis2 + GABA projection neurons.