Lorenz Studer

Lorenz Studer (born March 5, 1966) is a Swiss biologist. He is the founder and director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He is a developmental biologist and neuroscientist who is pioneering the generation of midbrain dopamine neurons for transplantation and clinical applications. His expertise in cell engineering spans a wide range of cells/tissues within the nervous system geared toward disease modeling and exploring cell replacement therapy. Currently, he is a member of the Developmental Biology Program and Department of Neurosurgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a professor of Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, NY.

In 2015, he was named a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the "''Genius Grant''") for his innovative work on stem cell and Parkinson's disease research.

Implementation of Studer's cell replacement therapy clinical trial which utilizes dopamine neurons generated from human embryonic/pluripotent stem cells for Parkinson's disease would be the first of its kind. The clinical trial which already has begun recruiting patients, is expected to receive the FDA's study permission by the end of 2020, with an anticipated start date in 2021.

Most recently, Studer was awarded an $8.95 million grant from the Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) Initiative, in partnership with the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where Studer works, was designated as the lead grant recipient among the five that will be sharing the overall award. Provided by Wikipedia