Parkinson’s patients are receiving a new investigational treatment thanks to groundbreaking research by Dr. Marina Emborg, a professor of medical physics in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. In 2024, Emborg and colleagues from the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center successfully grafted progenitor cells — which develop into the types of neurons that produce the brain chemical dopamine — into the brains of macaque monkeys. The success of their study informed ASPIRO, a clinical trial now being run by Aspen Neuroscience, a biotechnology company specializing in personalized cell therapy. The patients enrolled in the trial are safely tolerating the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) therapy, in which new brain cells are grown from the patients’ own cells and grafted into key parts of the brain, a procedure known as an “autologous” transplant. Their doctors have noted improvement in patients’ Parkinson’s symptoms, and the autologous iPSC-derived therapy has the unique advantage of not requiring immunosuppressive medications.
Read more about the APSIRO trial for Parkinson’s patients
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