Stem Cell Therapy Aims to Rebuild Brain Circuits in Parkinson’s Patients with Dr. Howard Federoff Kenai Therapeutics
Release Date: 02/11/2026
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Driving Innovation in Cell Therapy Manufacturing with Ryan Clarke Syntax Bio
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Ryan Clarke, Co-Founder and CTO of Syntax Bio, is focused on solving manufacturing challenges in producing stem cell-derived therapies, specifically the process of stem cell differentiation. The Cellgorithm platform was designed to make differentiation an engineering problem by using a modified form of CRISPR to turn genes on and off in a specific, controlled sequence, reducing processing time from months to days and resulting in cost savings. One goal is to use AI and machine learning to build models capable of predicting optimal gene regulation sequences accelerating the discovery of...
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Empowered Patient Podcast
Dr. Howard Federoff, Scientific Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer, and Executive Vice President of Corporate Medicine and Science at Kenai Therapeutics, is developing a cell therapy for Parkinson's disease that involves transplanting IPSCs into the brain to replace lost dopamine neurons. The goal is not to cure the underlying cause of the disease, but to restore motor function and reverse the disease's progression. Initial clinical focus was on patients with moderate to moderate-severe idiopathic Parkinson's, showing efficacy and safety, leading to expanding the study to include...
info_outline
Stem Cell Therapy Aims to Rebuild Brain Circuits in Parkinson’s Patients with Dr. Howard Federoff Kenai Therapeutics
Empowered Patient Podcast
Dr. Howard Federoff, Scientific Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer, and Executive Vice President of Corporate Medicine and Science at Kenai Therapeutics, is developing a cell therapy for Parkinson's disease that involves transplanting IPSCs into the brain to replace lost dopamine neurons. The goal is not to cure the underlying cause of the disease, but to restore motor function and reverse the disease's progression. Initial clinical focus was on patients with moderate to moderate-severe idiopathic Parkinson's, showing efficacy and safety, leading to expanding the study to include...
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Transforming MRI Data to Identify Biomarkers for Diagnosing and Treating Back Pain with Brent Ness Aclarion
Empowered Patient Podcast
Brent Ness, CEO and President of Aclarion, highlights the challenges of diagnosing and treating chronic lower back pain, a leading driver of healthcare costs and opioid addiction. Traditional MRI and CT imaging do not reveal the biochemical source of pain within spinal discs, leading to misdiagnosis and unsuccessful treatment. The Aclarion technology uses MR spectroscopy to measure pain-causing biomarkers and, through a cloud-based, AI-powered SaaS model, analyzes the raw data and sends the physician a report within minutes. Brent explains, "The diagnosis and accurate treatment planning...
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First Non-Steroidal MRA Drug Approved for Heart Failure with Dr. Alanna Morris-Simon Bayer
Empowered Patient Podcast
Dr. Alanna Morris-Simon, Senior Medical Director for US Medical Affairs at Bayer, describes the symptoms and diagnostics used to classify heart failure and the key at-risk populations for this condition. The rapidly evolving landscape of heart failure treatments now includes the Bayer drug KERENDIA, a non-steroidal MRA approved to reduce cardiovascular death and heart failure in adults with an ejection fraction of 40% or more. This drug is part of an emerging trend to treat multiple related conditions simultaneously and could prevent the onset of heart failure and treat established...
info_outlineDr. Howard Federoff, Scientific Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer, and Executive Vice President of Corporate Medicine and Science at Kenai Therapeutics, is developing a cell therapy for Parkinson's disease that involves transplanting IPSCs into the brain to replace lost dopamine neurons. The goal is not to cure the underlying cause of the disease, but to restore motor function and reverse the disease's progression. Initial clinical focus was on patients with moderate to moderate-severe idiopathic Parkinson's, showing efficacy and safety, leading to expanding the study to include earlier-stage and familial forms of the disease.
Howard explains, "Kenai was formed about three and a half years ago, and the intention is to develop a cellular product, which means that what is manufactured will be eligible in the right patient groups who have a diagnosis of Parkinson's to be placed into the brain. And consequent to its placement, the cells will then form new circuits, dopamine circuits that are lost owing to the disease diagnosis that will have occurred years earlier."
"The induced pluripotent stem cell approach is one we favor for several reasons. The nature of what then becomes the IPSC, as we like to call it, starts with a normal human volunteer whose medical history is very detailed and does not contain any familial personal history of neurodegeneration. That cell then undergoes a process called reprogramming. And in our case, it's done with a slightly different approach than many others. And the reprogramming effectively creates a cell that is pluripotent, meaning it can become any cell of the body. That's when it is designated as an induced pluripotent stem cell."
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