A stem cell differentiation protocol that was developed by Dr. Dong-Wook Kim’s laboratory at Yonsei University, College of Medicine (Department of Physiology) has been adopted as a standard protocol among the stem cell researchers around the world. Kim has accomplished in differentiating embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into pan-neural progenitor cells regardless of cell-line differences by blocking suppressive signals that are produced during the neural differentiation. Kim’s protocol has been selected as an international standard at the International Stem Cell Initiative (ISCI) of the International Stem Cell Forum (ISCF) held in U.K. on September 14, 2010. It is expected that Kim’s ‘almighty neural differentiation protocol’ may be the basis in measuring and analyzing neural differentiation of many ESC lines for researchers around the world. By treating small molecules which blocks signals that induce ESCs to differentiation into digestive/respiratory epithelial cells (endoderm) or into musculoskeletal cells (mesoderm), Kim’s laboratory is capable in obtaining neural cells with high efficiency. By applying the developed technique, they have successfully differentiated dopaminergic neurons from ESCs with the world’s highest efficiency (85~90%) and differentiated oligodendrocytes for the second time next to Geron Corp. (U.S.). Kim’s laboratory also differentiated ESCs into GABAnergic neurons with 74% efficiency and confirmed its effectiveness by transplanting those cells into animal pain models. According to Professor Kim, human ESCs have unrestrained differentiation efficiency due to its innate characteristics; however, he was able to induce neural cell (ectoderm) differentiation effectively by treating specific small molecules. Kim also stated that “Korea’s differentiation techniques were undervalued until now despite our world-class stem cell line establishment techniques,” but “Korean competitiveness will be reevaluated in the field of stem cell research through this accomplishment.”