Patent ID: 7972850

Claim:
A method of generating a population of human spinal motor neurons comprising: (a) culturing human Sox 1 − , Pax 6 + cells characterized by an early rosette morphology for 4-6 days in the presence of retinoic acid (RA), wherein a population of Hox + cells are created; (b) culturing the cells resulting from step (a) in the presence of RA and sonic hedgehog (SHH); and (c) culturing the cells resulting from step (b) in neuronal differentiation medium and in the presence of SHH, wherein the resulting cells express HB9, HoxB1, HoxB6, HoxC5, HoxC8, choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) and produce acetylcholine.