A Method to Generate Microglia from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Background

Microglia are the macrophages of the central nervous system and have been shown to play crucial roles in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). However, unlike other cell types if the human central nervous system, microglia have not yet been derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells.

Technology Overview

This technology enables the rapid production of microglia-like cells to be derived from human embryonic stem (hES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells under defined serum-free culture conditions. This defined medium mimics this serum-free environment of the CNS interstitial milieu, supporting electrophysiological maturation of astrocytes and differentiation and maintenance of oligodendrocytes.

Further Details:

• Muffat, J., Li, Y., Yuan, B. et al. Efficient derivation of microglia-like cells from human pluripotent stem cells. Nat Med 22, 1358–1367 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4189

Benefits

• Allows for the study of microglia in highly defined conditions
• Expression signature of these iPS-derived microglia resemble those of purified human fetal microglia maintained in the same culture conditions

Applications

• Can create microglia-like cells from human ES cells and iPS cells representing a collection of control and disease subjects
• Allows for the study of the interaction of neurons and microglia and will facilitate the investigation of these diseases in defined culture conditions

Opportunity

This technology is available for licensing and sponsored research.