Disease Focus: Neurological Disorders
iPS-Interneuron Transplantation for Neural Repair after Stroke
Research Objective To determine if transplantation of iPS-interneurons cells (iPS-3i cells) enhances functional recovery in stroke. Impact Successful completion of the proposed studies will develop a brain repair therapy for stroke, an unmet clinical need with significant impact on society. Major Proposed Activities To determine the recovery effect of transplantation of iPS-3i cells in the […]
Development of Autologous Cell Replacement Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease: Path to Personalized Treatment
Translational Candidate autologous iPSC-derived dopaminergic progenitor cells Area of Impact Parkinson's Disease Mechanism of Action Autologous iPSC-derived dopaminergic progenitor cells represent a promising strategy to replace the nigrostriatal cells which are lost in Parkinson's Disease (PD). While approaches using fetal tissue / allogeneic stem cells show great promise, they are not sufficiently personalized to provide […]
Development of a Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Pitt Hopkins Syndrome (PHS) – Translating from Animal Proof of Concept to Support Pre-IND Meeting
Translational Candidate MZ-1866 is a recombinant AAV9 based gene therapy containing the transgene encoding Transcription Factor 4 (TCF4) Area of Impact Pitt Hopkins Syndrome is a rare genetic neurological disease which causes profound disability and severe health impact Mechanism of Action Patients with Pitt Hopkins Syndrome have heterozygous mutations in the Transcription Factor 4 (TCF4) […]
CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing of Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells for Friedreich’s ataxia
Translational Candidate Autologous human CD34+ HSPC of patients with Friedreich’s ataxia, modified ex vivo using CRISPR/Cas9 to remove the GAA expansion mutation in frataxin Area of Impact Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) for which there is no effective treatment available Mechanism of Action The proposed therapy intervention is intended to impact the target indication of Friedreich's ataxia […]
A human neural stem cell therapeutic candidate for the treatment of chronic cervical spinal cord injury
Translational Candidate The therapeutic candidate is a central nervous system tissue-derived GMP line developed under DISC2-10753 with an established GMP qualified seed bank. Area of Impact The target is chronic cervical spinal cord injury, which represents approximately 59% of clinical spinal cord injury cases. Mechanism of Action Integration of transplanted human neural stem cells is […]
Clinical Translation of Allogenic Regenerative Cell Therapy for White Matter Stroke and Vascular Dementia
Translational Candidate Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived glial enriched progenitors Area of Impact Vascular dementia and white matter stroke, addressing a current bottleneck of poor scale up for existing cell differentiation protocols. Mechanism of Action Preliminary in vivo efficacy studies indicate that the MOA is in the promotion of new connections in the brain after […]
Clinical Translation of Allogenic Regenerative Cell Therapy for White Matter Stroke and Vascular Dementia
Translational Candidate Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived glial enriched progenitors Area of Impact Vascular dementia and white matter stroke, addressing a current bottleneck of poor scale up for existing cell differentiation protocols. Mechanism of Action Preliminary in vivo efficacy studies indicate that the MOA is in the promotion of new connections in the brain after […]
Human Neural Stem Cells (hNSCs) for neuroprotection in perinatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HII)-Pre-IND-enabling Studies
Translational Candidate An established stable human neural stem cell line unmanipulated genetically & propagated under defined conditions Area of Impact Perinatal asphyxia (also called hypoxic-ischemic injury), a major untreatable cause of cerebral palsy & cognitive disability Mechanism of Action hNSCs rescue the penumbra, the part of the brain lesion following perinatal asphyxia that still has […]
Development of a human stem cell-derived inhibitory neuron therapeutic for the treatment of chronic focal epilepsy
Translational Candidate A cellular therapeutic comprised of inhibitory nerve cells produced from human stem cells Area of Impact Drug-resistant chronic temporal lobe epilepsy Mechanism of Action The product candidate is intended to be delivered into the seizure focus, integrate, and secrete the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA to rebalance neural electrical activity in the brain and eliminate/reduce […]
Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Neural Stem Cells for Severe Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)
Translational Candidate H9 (WA09) embryonic stem cell-derived neural stem cells with a spinal cord identity (H9-NSCsc) Area of Impact Severe spinal cord injury Mechanism of Action Our candidate therapy for SCI uses human neural stem cells in a gel-like matrix containing growth factors. We aim to fill the injury site with replacement neural stem cells […]