Current paradigms of modeling human psychiatric disease such as schizophrenia are featuring the use of patient-specific iPSC-derived neurons (Brennand et al., 2011; Marchetto et al., 2010; Pasca et al., 2011). However, those published studies were performed in mixed neural cultures of unclear neuronal subtype identity and with limited characterization of subtype specific synaptic and functional properties. There is a convergence of post-mortem findings that attempt to link genetic defects to psychiatric disorders, such as the interneuron-associated Erbb4 receptor in schizophrenia (Fazzari et al., 2010). Therefore it is essential to have access to purified populations of mature cortical interneurons for modeling human disease. Our results demonstrate that the highly efficient derivation of cortical interneurons is possible following timed exposure to developmental cues.
