Neurodegenerative Disease Research Program

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The Institute's focuses on developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.  The therapeutic approach focuses on developing regenerative medicine platform that impact neurological cell protection, cell repair and cell replacement.  This regenerative medicine approach addresses neurodegenerative diseases in a generalized fashion to treat both common conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease as well as rare diseases of the central nervous system like lysosomal storage disorders.  The regenerative medicine platform includes cellular and non-cellular therapeutic approaches that include:

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1. The broadest pipeline of human somatic (legacy adult) stem cells.
2. The first-in-class virus-free and oncogene-free induced pluripotent stem cells.
3. Exosome-specific approaches.
4. Cell therapy that can deliver targeted synthetic biologics.
5. Cell encapsulation technologies that extend the cell viability and function of cell therapies.
6. Gene editing technologies to enhance stem cell immune tolerance, potency and safety.

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To date, this is the most comprehensive approach in regenerative medicine research for neurological diseases.

The Institute's therapeutic strategy is to find common therapeutic solutions in regenerative medicine that will repair and regenerate neurological cell injury irrespective of whether the disease is common or rare. 

Common neurological diseases include but not limited to the following: Alzheimer's, Parkinson's diseases, Multiple Sclerosis, Stroke, Spinal Cord Injury, Traumatic Brain Injury, ALS and Cerebellar Degeneration.

Rare neurological diseases include but not limited to lysosomal storage disorders and other monogenetic disorders.