Neural Stem Cell Institute

06/01/2026

We were thrilled to host Dr. Ella Zeldich from Boston University today! She gave a terrific talk on "Dissecting neuronal and glial dysfunction in Down Syndrome using human Organoid Models".

05/08/2026

Our team is heading to Boston for the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy () Annual Meeting next week! We’re excited to connect with the community.

Presentations:
May 13 - 11:30 AM | Dr. David Butler will be giving a talk during Neurological Diseases III.
May 14 - 5:00 PM | Dr. Anne Messer will be presenting a poster.

05/07/2026

TODAY at - Dr. Sally Temple will present the closing keynote lecture.

Her talk will discuss how our team uses patient- and donor-derived stem cells and technology to create models of the human brain and eye. These models are essential to improve understanding of diseases like ’s and age-related , leading to better therapeutics. She will also highlight our preclinical-stage gene therapy for FTD-tau and clinical-stage adult stem cell-derived RPE therapy for treatment of dry AMD.

Date | May 7
Time | 10:15 AM
Place | Colorado Convention Center



More info 👉 https://www.arvo.org/annual-meeting/program-schedule/lectures/arvo-genentech-keynote-series -keynote

05/06/2026

TODAY at , Dr. Swapna Nandakumar will present a poster during the Gene Therapies and Editing session, titled “High throughput CRISPRi screening identifies genes that regulate RPE proliferation.”

She will discuss her work using a high throughput screening approach to identify genes that regulate RPE growth and division. Identification of these genes is an early step in developing a strategy to stimulate division of RPE cells in the eye in a controlled manner. The ultimate goal is to promote repair by replacing lost RPE cells and preventing AMD progression.

Date | May 6
Time | 2:00 - 3:45 PM
Place | Poster Hall, Colorado Convention Center
Poster | # 0649

05/01/2026

TODAY at the Retinal Therapeutics Innovation Summit hosted by & , Dr. Jeff Stern will be speaking in a session on stem cell therapies.

In dry Age-related (AMD), retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells that are essential for retinal function and central vision are lost. Our approach for AMD therapy uses adult stem cell-derived RPE cells to replace these cells. Dr. Jeffrey Stern will present results from our Phase 1/2a clinical trial testing safety and tolerability of RPESC-RPE in dry AMD patients.

Date | May 1
Time | 11:45 AM
Place | Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel



More info 👉 http://give.fightingblindness.org/event/retinal-therapeutics-innovation-summit-2026/e721044

04/28/2026

Available now Cell Reports Medicine: “IND-enabling Safety and Efficacy of RPESC-RPE-4W, an Adult RPE Progenitor Cell Therapy for Dry Age-related Macular Degeneration.” This paper describes the pathway to an Investigational New Drug (IND) allowance from the FDA, a prerequisite for our ongoing clinical trial. Strong preclinical safety and efficacy, along with GMP process development and promising clinical results, also contributed to designation from the FDA in 2025.

Led by Sally Temple and Jeffrey Stern, this multi-institutional effort included Brigitte Arduini, Timothy Blenkinsop, Michael Naimark, Susan Borden, Carol Charniga, Melissa Campbell, Natasha Rugenstein, Richard Davis, Nazia Alam, Glen Prusky, Amber Frye, Francesca Mazzoni, Silvia Finnemann, Cuiping Zhao, Patricia Lederman, Janmeet Saini, Thomas Kiehl, Nicole Renga, Jade Kozak, Penny Rocchio, Enrique Salero, Nathan Boles, Susan Goderie, Steven Lotz, Joan Adamo, Sharyl Zaccaglino, Khadijah Onanuga, Michael Fiske and Alexandra Capela.

The Neural Stem Cell Institute received support from NYSTEM (New York State Department of Health), the National Eye Institute and Luxa Biotechnology. The UR CTSI is supported in part by a Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, a component of the National Institutes of Health.

We are grateful to the eye donors and their families, and to the eye banks that enabled this work, including Lions Eye Bank of the Northeast in Albany, Central Florida Lions Eye in Tampa, Lions Gift of Sight of the University of Minnesota, the Eye Bank of New York, the San Diego Eye Bank, Eversight, ConnectLife, and the National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI).




Fordham University

Free Full-Text | https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(26)00196-5

04/27/2026

Our team is heading to Denver for the Retinal Therapeutics Innovation Summit and this week! We’re excited to reconnect with the global community.

Presentations:

May 1 - 11:45 | Dr. Jeff Stern will be speaking at the & summit
May 6 - 2:00 | Dr. Swapna Nandakumar will be presenting during the ARVO Gene Therapies and Editing poster session.
May 7 - 10:15 | Dr. Sally Temple will give the ARVO closing keynote lecture.

04/20/2026

David Butler is heading to Drexel University!

In his talk, he will discuss the development of engineered intrabodies that help direct the degradation of harmful proteins inside cells. Using human iPSC-derived neural models and in vivo systems, they demonstrate how this platform can be used to target disease-related proteins such as tau, α-synuclein, mutant huntingtin, and viral regulatory proteins, highlighting its potential as a new intracellular therapeutic approach.

Date | April 22
Time | 12 PM
Place | Auditorium A, Queen Lane Campus
Host | Dr. Peter Baas
Institution | Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

Event Detail Page

04/16/2026

We are excited to announce that postdoctoral fellow Catherine Hamann was awarded the Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship for All (AARFA)!

Her project, “Uncovering SNAP91’s Role in R406W Tauopathy and Synaptic Dysfunction,” will use patient-derived stem cell and models grown in the lab to study how connections between brain cells break down and contribute to tau protein-related neurodegenerative conditions like Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD).

Many thanks to the Alzheimer's Association for their support, and congratulations to Catherine!

More info here 👉 https://www.alz.org/research/for_researchers/grants/funded-studies-details?FundedStudyID=3626

Review study abstracts of research grants funded by the Alzheimer's Association International Research Grant Program.

04/08/2026

Congratulations to Hill Lab intern Aleena Saleem for her outstanding achievement at the 2026 Greater Capital Region Science and Engineering Fair ()! The March 28th event was held at and sponsored by .

Aleena won the Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS) Eleanor Miller Read Science Research Award, a distinction given to projects that truly capture the spirit of scientific inquiry and dedication. Her project, "Building a signature matrix for cell deconvolution in rat models of spinal cord injury," seeks to improve understanding of the cell types involved in spinal cord injury.

Many thanks to Drs. Sol Torruella and Caitlin Hill for their guidance and mentorship!