Identification of ASCL1 as a determinant for human iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons

To better understand how human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) differentiate from progenitor cells into distinct neuronal states, we performed 10x single cell RNA sequencing on in vitro directed differentiation cultures. We established differentiation platforms that model neural induction from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and single cell profiled two systems: 1) co-culture of progenitors and neurons and 2) purified neurons. A human iPSC line, 2131, generated by reprogramming dermal fibroblasts were stimulated with small molecules and recombinant proteins to promote neural differentiation. Both neural co-cultures and purified neuronal cells were extracted for 10x single cell RNA sequencing with 3 replicates for each system.