STEM-PD study

STEM-PD is a stem-cell based, first in human clinical trial for patients with Parkinson’s disease aiming to replace the dopamine neurons lost in the disease with new healthy neurons, thereby restoring the dopaminergic innervation of the striatum. STEM-PD is an investigational human embryonic stem cell-based dopamine nerve cell product.

The trial is a phase I/IIa clinical trial and has received approval from the Swedish Medical Products Agency. The STEM-PD team is lead by Professor Malin Parmar, Lund University, in close collaboration with colleagues at Skåne University Hospital, the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), and the Imperial College London.

The trial will investigate the safety and tolerability of transplanting STEM-PD cells into the brain of patients with moderate Parkinson’s disease and the primary outcome is safety and tolerability at 1-year post-transplantation. Secondary endpoints will be survival and function of the transplanted cells by brain imaging as well as effects on Parkinson’s symptoms.