Directed Differentiation of Mixed Germ Layer Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Progenitors Toward the Oligodendroglial Lineage

Differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into oligodendrocyte progenitor cells is currently an inefficient process. These cells are required for myelination, which is crucial for proper brain and nerve cord function. The ability to manufacture these cells allows for the study and potential treatment of demyelinating conditions. In-vivo development can be recapitulated in-vitro using pluripotent stem cells to produce cells of interest, including OPCs. Generally, formation of a single germ layer is promoted, and this germ layer is educated by molecular equivalents—substituting for the other germ layers—to derive a pure cell type of interest. To investigate the developmental genesis of these cells, this project approaches this issue from a different viewpoint and instead incorporates the cellular progenitors of those layers to test if they contribute to an accelerated protocol. Should they do so, we aim to reverse-engineer this process and determine what molecular equivalents are necessary. In order to generate a timeline, cells will be split off from the main culture and characterized using immunostaining. With multiple cell lines at multiple time points, this study aims to carefully characterize cells at each step.This research was supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)