Oryon: Skipping the progenitor stage in Parkinson’s cell therapy

Unlike peers that transplant progenitor cells, Oryon Cell Therapies Inc. is developing a Parkinson’s disease therapy based on fully differentiated dopaminergic neurons. The goal is to gain greater control over the dose and composition of the graft, thereby reducing the risk of side effects such as graft-induced dyskinesias.

“You put in progenitors, and there’s good evidence they divide and differentiate, but what do they differentiate into?” CEO Ron Cohen told BioCentury...