The transcriptomic profile of stem-cell derived neurons in 3D culture conditions and stem-cell derived astrocytic cells

Understanding neurological diseases requires tractable genetic systems. Three-dimensional (3D) neural tissue systems are an attractive choice, but it is not well understood how the transcriptome profile of these tissues is affected by encapsulating materials. Here we characterize the effect of different culturing conditions on the transcriptomic profile of induced neuronal cells and develop a method for rapid generation of 3D co-cultures of neuronal and astrocytic cells from hESCs. We perform transcriptome analysis of cells resulting from astrocytic cell differentiation. Using single-cell sequencing, we find that our system recapitulates transcriptional patterns of cell types in the human brain. Overall design: Refer to individual samples.