Reproducible and scalable differentiation of highly pure cortical neurons from human induced pluripotent stem cells

Human-induced-pluripotent-stem-cell (hiPSC)-derived neurons are valuable for investigating brain physiology and disease. Here, we present a protocol to differentiate hiPSCs into cortical neurons with high yield and purity. We describe neural induction via dual-SMAD inhibition, followed by spot-based differentiation to provide high quantities of neural precursors. We detail their enrichment, expansion, and purification to avoid unwanted cell fates and provide optimal conditions for neural rosette proliferation. These differentiated neurons are suitable for drug testing and co-culture studies. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Paquet et al.¹ and Weisheit et al..².