Lopez Lab
Email: bsong@mgh.harvard.edu
Call: 617 724-2673
Overview
The George A. “Doc” Lopez, MD Laboratory for Regenerative Cell Therapy is situated within the Department of Neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and is led by Bin Song, MD, PhD, scientific director, and Jeffrey Schweitzer, MD, PhD, clinical director. The mission of the laboratory is to pioneer innovative methods for treating Parkinson’s disease and related degenerative disorders of the nervous system at the cellular level.
Our focus involves utilizing state-of-the-art tools for cellular reprogramming, gene editing, and directed differentiation of stem cell products. In addition to a cutting-edge cell and molecular neurobiology research laboratory, the Lopez Laboratory includes a self-contained Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) facility, specifically designed to exceed FDA standards of quality and safety for producing clinical-grade cell products for early-phase clinical trials. This unique integration of research and qualified controlled areas creates a conducive environment for pioneering translational research.
The laboratory's primary focus is on cellular therapies for Parkinson’s disease, and ongoing research projects include the refinement of reprogramming techniques for induced pluripotent stem cells, the development of novel differentiation protocols for generating dopaminergic neurons, and the exploration of technological innovations to enhance the survival of stem cell-derived grafts.
George A. “Doc” Lopez, MD
What is regenerative cell therapy?
Many neurodegenerative diseases involve the loss of specific cell types. This loss can occur due to a variety of underlying causes such as genetic, environmental, or both. Although medicines can substitute some of the functions of the lost cells, the substitution is incomplete and imperfect at best, has many side effects, and does not prevent progression of the disease. Similarly, current surgical therapies such as deep brain stimulation also treats just the symptoms and carry a different set of risks and limitations. While the concept of replacing cells lost in Parkinson’s disease originated decades ago, modern molecular biological, genetic, and stem cell techniques have opened many new avenues to safely and effectively overcome barriers to progress in this field. Replacing the lost cells carries the potential of more closely approximating a true cure, with more durable benefit and fewer side effects.
By further adopting the precision or personalized medicine approach, cellular replacement can achieve the optimum treatment for each patient. Advances in genetics and neuroscience give us the tools to develop novel therapies, while big data resources and machine learning help identify those at risk and facilitate more effective prevention or early intervention.
The idea behind precision medicine is to move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach by accounting for our individual differences in biology, environment, and lifestyle to develop more targeted and effective approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. We have already witnessed significant benefits from precision medicine, such as the development of targeted treatments for cancer and heart disease, along with novel methods for predicting an individual’s risk of these and other diseases. We now have an opportunity to bring precision medicine to the field of cell therapy for degenerative diseases of the brain.
Fundamental, unresolved questions persist in our ability to apply cell therapy in this manner:
- Are all patients with Parkinson's disease candidates for cell therapy using their own skin or blood cells as a tissue source, or does this only work for some?
- What is the best, safest, and most cost efficient method or methods for creating “working banks” of stem cells, and for differentiating them into the desired cell type?
- What are the best surgical techniques to help the replacement cells survive in the brain?
- Can we correct the molecular pathology in the transplanted cells that caused the disease in the patient?
- How does the outcome of such treatment compare to other therapies for Parkinson's disease? Can different forms of therapy be combined?
Our laboratory is committed to uncovering the answers to these and other questions for the advancement of cell therapies and the improvement of patient outcomes.