ERC Synergy Grant awarded for the development of custom-made stem cell therapies

Malin Parmar, professor of cellular neuroscience, along with three researchers in Italy and Denmark, has been awarded the prestigious ERC Synergy Grant worth EUR 10 million. The four researchers aim to develop custom-made neurons from stem cells for cell therapies to treat Parkinson's or Huntington's disease.

Congratulations!
"Thank you, it feels really fun and exciting for many reasons! One reason is of course that it's a lot of funding over a long period that will allow me to develop projects that I like and that I am passionate about, and another is that it is very enjoyable team to work with and I look forward to collaborate with my fellow applicants," says Malin Parmar.

What will you be focusing on?
"Stem cell therapies for diseases in the brain being developed today are based on transplanting cells created from stem cells to replace the function of the brain cells that have been lost due to neurodegenerative diseases. The aim is for the transplanted cells to function just as well as those normally found in the brain. Until now, a single cell product are used for all patients with the same disease and therapeutic approach. However, neurodegenerative diseases are heterogeneous and complex, which means that future stem cell therapies should take this into account in order to maximise the therapeutic effect for as many individuals as possible."

"We want to develop a completely new concept in stem cell therapy. Every patient is different and therefore we want to develop ways to custom make cells and stem cell therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. Our focus in the project is on Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease," says Malin Parmar.

The prestigious ERC Synergy Grant is awarded to Jenny Emneus, Elena Cattaneo, Malin Parmar and Annalisa Buffo. Photo: Private

In the project that has now received funding from the European Research Council (ERC), she and the other researchers want to utilise stem cells' enormous potential to an even greater extent and combine this with gene editing and new molecular techniques. The aim is to develop individualised and more effective stem cell therapies based on the specific disease, the patient's sub-group and current disease phase, and which can also be adapted according to individual variations.

"Our goal is to make advances in stem cell therapy by modifying and adapting cells to the patient's needs. Among other things, that could mean developing a cell product with several changes in different combinations. Such a change could be cells that are resistant to the disease process itself, another could be transplanting different types of cells in a controlled mix, or that the activation of cell types in the transplant is based on how the disease develops," says Malin Parmar.

The ERC Synergy Grant