Lineage specific cells and progenitor cells

Patent Number: 6929948

This patent teaches ways of extracting cells with a neural phenotype from a population of stem cells that are differentiated along the neural lineage through selecting cells that express a marker under control of a promoter which is active only in neural cells. Specifically, the patent claims the use the Sox gene promoter. One way to use this patent would be to insert GFP under control of Sox promoter and purify from a culture of stem cells the green cells. The patent has one independent claim covering:

A method for generating a culture that is purified or enriched in neural progenitor cells, comprising: (i) introducing into a pluripotent cell a selectable marker that is differentially expressed in neural progenitor cells compared with its expression in other cells, wherein neural progenitor cells constitute a sub-set of the cells obtainable from the pluripotent cell, and wherein expression of the selectable marker is under the control of a Sox gene promoter; (ii) culturing the pluripotent cell in vitro to induce differentiation of the pluripotent cell into a neural progenitor cell or into a mixture of cells including neural progenitor cells, or to induce preferential survival, in a mixed culture of cells, of neural progenitor cells; and (iii) selecting for neural progenitor cells according to differential expression of the selectable marker introduced in step (i).

View this patent on the USPTO website.