One potential application of iPSCs is disease modeling. For the study of neurodegenerative disorders it is crucial to be able to introduce and express exogenous constructs in neuronal cells to assess gene function. Like other postmitotic cells, neurons present a particular challenge regarding the efficiency of gene transfer. To achieve efficient transduction in human neurons, we have developed a platform technology that utilizes an insect virus backbone (baculovirus) to deliver large payloads. Using this novel episomal baculoviral-based vector system (a nonintegrating gene delivery strategy), we tested this delivery system with a ubiquitous promoter (CMV) driving GFP in iPSC-derived NSCs and their differentiated neurons. As seen in Figure 5A and 5B, approximately 87% NSCs were expressing GFP 24 hours after transduction as assessed by Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) analysis. Likewise, transduction is efficient in iPSC-derived neurons (36 days after NSC differentiation) as 90.3% of cells expressed GFP 2 days after transduction (Fig. 5C, 5D). Transduction in hESC-derived neurons was shown as comparison (Fig. 5E, 5F, 5J–5L). Immunostaining of β-III tubulin confirmed that the majority of neurons coexpressed GFP (Fig. 5G–5L). Importantly,
