Lorenz Studer, MD

Lorenz Studer, M.D., is a world-renowned stem cell biologist and physician-scientist recognized for his pioneering work in neural differentiation, disease modeling, and cell-based therapies. He serves as Director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at the Sloan-Kettering Institute, Enid A. Haupt Chair in Developmental Biology, and is a member of the Developmental Biology & Neurosurgery Program at SKI. Dr. Studer has spent more than two decades advancing the translation of human pluripotent stem cells into therapies for neurological diseases, with a focus on Parkinson’s disease, neural crest disorders, and neurodegeneration.

At the Center for Stem Cell Biology, Dr. Studer’s laboratory develops protocols to direct human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells toward specific neural lineages, including midbrain dopamine neurons, spinal motoneurons, cortical interneurons, sensory neurons, astrocytes, and microglia. His team has established the first iPSC-based disease models for Parkinson’s disease, neuromuscular and neural crest disorders, and neuropsychiatric diseases, while also creating innovative platforms such as tri-culture neuroinflammation systems and pooled “cell village” approaches for high-throughput disease modeling. His work has led to key advances in accelerating neuronal maturation and inducing cellular aging to model late-onset disorders.

Dr. Studer’s translational research has resulted in the first FDA-cleared investigational new drug (IND) for a human PSC-derived dopamine neuron therapy in Parkinson’s disease, with clinical trials demonstrating safety, graft survival, and preliminary clinical improvement. He is also a co-founder of BlueRock Therapeutics, a biotechnology company dedicated to developing regenerative therapies for neurodegenerative disorders. His laboratory leads and contributes to multiple NIH- and foundation-funded consortia aimed at scalable human PSC-based knockout screens, organoid modeling, and neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disease studies.

Dr. Studer has received numerous honors for his scientific contributions, including election to the National Academy of Medicine, the Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize, the Gabbay Award, and the MacArthur Fellowship. He has trained over a decade of postdoctoral fellows, serves as principal investigator on T32 training grants, and continues to mentor the next generation of stem cell scientists. He earned his M.D. from the University of Fribourg and a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Bern, Switzerland, followed by postdoctoral training at the NIH in stem cell biology.