One of critical questions in biomedicine is whether it is possible to use patient’s own cells in cell replacement therapy for intractable human diseases. Since a selective loss of a specific cell type, namely A9 dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta, is a main cause, Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is one such target for cell replacement therapy.

In 2006, Professor Yamanaka and his team pioneered the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, which has ignited an explosion of scientific and public interest due to its potential for autologous cell therapy. However, iPSCs are now widely used for research purposes, but not yet for cell replacement therapy. Thus, our team has identified major obstacles of the iPSC technology and attempted to address them by understanding the molecular mechanisms and improving the methodologies. In this presentation, we will share the first human case in which we applied our improved technologies to treat a PD patient with his own reprogrammed cells from a skin biopsy.