(Boston)—Afzalbek Fayzullaev, a second-year student at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, has been awarded the prestigious ASTRO (American Society for Radiation Oncology) Medical Student Fellowship Award for his project, “Readability of Patient Education Materials for Radiation Oncology and Treatment Adherence at an Urban Safety Net Hospital.”

Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine’s longest NIH-funded research training program, “Biology of the Lung: A Multi-Disciplinary Program,” has received an additional five-year, T32 award to continue providing multidisciplinary training and exposure to collaborative lung biology in three scientific areas that are special strengths at Boston University: development and regenerative medicine; immunology and infection; and biomedical data sciences.

Previously unpublished long-term clinical and imaging findings from participants treated with an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neural progenitor cell therapy for chronic ischemic stroke were presented today at the ISSCR 2026 Annual Meeting.

The data include extended follow-up from Phase I studies evaluating hNPC01, an iPSC-derived forebrain neural progenitor cell therapy designed to promote repair of stroke-damaged brain tissue. The findings provide new insight into the long-term safety, feasibility, and biological activity of this regenerative approach in patients living with chronic motor disability following stroke.

The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) today announced the presentation of new clinical data from the STEM-PD Phase I/II clinical trial at the ISSCR 2026 Annual Meeting. The study reports 12-month outcomes evaluating a cryopreserved, off-the-shelf dopaminergic progenitor cell product derived from human pluripotent stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

The findings provide new insights into the safety, feasibility, and biological activity of stem cell-derived dopaminergic cell transplantation in patients with Parkinson’s disease and represent another important step in the clinical translation of regenerative medicine for neurodegenerative disease.

New, previously unpublished clinical data was presented today at ISSCR 2026 demonstrating that transplanted human neural progenitor cells survived for at least one year following subretinal transplantation in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), while maintaining a favorable safety profile.

Retinitis pigmentosa is a group of inherited retinal diseases that progressively causes vision loss currently has no treatment for most patients. Because thousands of different genetic mutations can cause the disease, developing mutation-specific gene therapies remains challenging. Cell-based therapies offer the potential for a gene-agnostic approach that could benefit a broader population of patients.

An update on the first clinical trial evaluating a pluripotent stem cell-derived neural stem cell therapy for Huntington’s disease was presented today at the ISSCR 2026 Annual Meeting. The Phase 1b/2a REGEN4HD study represents a significant translational milestone following years of preclinical research, pivotal safety studies, regulatory engagement, and clinical trial development.

Huntington’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with no currently available disease-modifying treatment. Regenerative medicine approaches using human stem cell-derived products are being investigated as a potential strategy to modulate disease pathology in the brain and address this substantial unmet medical need. The presentation at ISSCR 2026 highlights the launch of the first clinical trial of a pluripotent stem cell-derived therapy for Huntington's disease, marking an important step in translating regenerative medicine research toward potential new treatment approaches for this devastating neurodegenerative disorder.