Dr. Lorenz Studer is the founding director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Enid A Haupt Chair in Developmental Biology, and current President-Elect of the International Society of Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). His lab has pioneered many of the currently available protocols for the directed differentiation on human pluripotent stem cells into lineages of the central and peripheral nervous system. His group has also been among the first to realize the potential of patient-specific stem cells for modeling neurodevelopment and neurodegenerative disorders. His team further developed innovative strategies to measure and manipulate cellular age and to accelerate maturation of human pluripotent-derived cell lineages. Finally, he has led the application of pluripotent stem cells in regenerative medicine including the treatment of Parkinson's disease. In 2020, the work got cleared for a first-in-human clinical trial in patients with advanced PD. Awards related to his studies include a MacArthur Fellowship, Ogawa-Yamanaka Prize, Gabbay award, ISSCR achievement award and recent election to the US National Academy of Medicine