On July 5,6 and 7 2023, the LUMC group in Leiden organised a workshop on using induced Pluripotent Stem cells (iPSC): From fibroblasts to neuronal cultures. Thirteen participants attended from 6 different institutes that followed a mixture of lectures and practical training sessions.

There were lectures covering reprogramming and quality control of iPSCs, Neural Progenitor Cells (NPCs), iPSC disease modelling for PolyQ diseases, creating Isogenic cell lines using CRISPR/Cas, the pros and cons of 2D vs 3D iPSC models, functional assays for polyQ iPSC modelling and compound delivery. Throughout the 3 days there were several practical session to introduce working with the Standard Operating Procedures that have been developed by the LUMC, how to differentiate and freeze NPCs and how to assess the quality of NPC cultures. On the first day there was a guest lecture by Dr. Harald Mikkers of the department of Cell and Chemical Biology on genetic modification for hiPSC-based disease modelling. At the end of the workshop all participants agreed to start a discussion/working group in the Teams environment to share progress and problems that people run into when doing iPSC culture experiments so we can harmonize results from cell culture experiments within the consortium and learn from each other. A short practical online session will be organised after the summer holiday to share experiences with the use of the Seahorse assays on neuronally differentiated iPSC.