Scientific Programs

PNI has pioneer expertise, dating back to the 90s, in neural stem cell-based therapies for the treatment of neurological disorders within an industry setting at Layton Biosciences, where the world’s first cryopreserved neural product was developed and manufactured under current Good Manufacturing Practices and transplanted into patients afflicted with stroke.
Unique expertise in stem cell biology and translational research expanded through partnerships with academic and industry experiences to advance preclinical development which is so critical for the successful translation of promising technologies to improve human lives.
Our current active programs are focused on two topics: 1) In vitro stem cell technologies and 2) preclinical development using nonhuman primate (NHP) animal models of neurological disorders relevant to our Parkinson’s disease stem cell translational program.

PNI is focused on developing neural stem cell products derived from pluripotent stem cells. We have access to unique proprietary methods for isolating purified populations of self-renewable neural stem cells and directing their differentiation into the dopaminergic and other lineages.
The stem cell technologies are focused mainly on neural stem cell perpetuation, brain organoids, cell fate determination, single cell analysis and genetic technologies, CRSPR-CAS9 to correct disease-causing mutations or insert mutations / reporter genes for drug screening and addressing specific biological questions. These technologies combined enabled us to discover and pursue novel targets involved in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer diseases, TBI, MS.

Translational Regenerative Medicine: NHP play a particularly important role in translational research as they have an underlying biology reflecting a shared evolutionary relationship with humans. This is particularly important in aging and neurosciences as NHPs naturally emulate various degenerative diseases and aging disabilities as seen in humans. With insights on developed and published NHP models of stroke, Parkinson’s disease and prodromal Alzheimer’s-like disease, PNI is positioned to test investigational new products on specific sets of behavioral phenotypes that are closely relevant to human diseases and injuries.
Advanced technology: we are developing is an allogeneic induced pluripotent stem cell-based cell replacement therapy for treating patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The Institute has access to enabling technologies for preclinical development such as the clinical catheter designed for intra-operative image-guided transplantation of neural cells into the brain and other organs of the body.
Neuroimaging is another focus is at PNI, since we consider the development of novel multimodal imaging technologies for intra-operative neurosurgical interventions to be critical to successfully transplanting neurons into diseased or injured brain areas and visualizing in real time changes occurring during cell delivery.