Professor Shin In-jae’s Research Team Suggests Method

for Generating Active Neurons from Stem Cells

-Article published in Chemistry & Biology

A research team led by Yonsei Chemistry Professor Shin In-jae and Professor Kim Kyeong-kyu of Sungkyunkwan University has developed a new differentiation protocol that could be valuable in selectively generating functionally active neurons from pluripotent stem cells. The results of the research were published November 19 in Chemistry & Biology, a sister journal of Cell, with the title “Combining Suppression of Stemness with Lineage-Specific Induction Leads to Conversion of Pluripotent Cells into Functional Neurons.” The article was also featured under “Breaking News” at EurekAlert! (www.eurekalert.org), an online global news service operated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Professor Shin and Professor Kim have been conducting research into the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells for several years. In 2014, a team led by Professor Shin published its findings on the promotion of neurogenesis in pluripotent cells in Angewandte Chemie. The same year, Professor Kim and his team published the article “Inhibition of master transcription factors in pluripotent cells induces early stage differentiation” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Together Professors Kim and Shin have developed a new neuron differentiation method using Skp protein and a neurogenesis enhancer in pluripotent stem (P19) cells (Picture 1). Using the P19 cells from mice, the team was able to produce electrophysiologically active neurons and enhance neurogenesis. The research thus paves the way for even more efficient differentiation protocols to be developed.