Speaker Profile
Ph.D., Director, Discovery Research, Neurona Tx
Biography
Marina Bershteyn is one of the founding scientists on the Neurona Therapeutics discovery team. She co-led the development of a novel stem cell-derived inhibitory cell therapy for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, from early-stage protocol development and product characterization, through the IND approval by the FDA for First-In-Human Phase III Clinical Study. Prior to joining Neurona, Marina did her postdoctoral research in developmental neuroscience at UCSF, where she established the first patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from lissencephaly and ring chromosome disorders and implemented 3D cerebral organoid models together with live imaging and single cell transcriptomics to study the mechanisms of human neurodevelopmental disorders. She obtained her PhD in cancer biology from Stanford University, where she investigated epithelial-mesenchymal Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signaling and cytoskeletal regulation in the context of skin cancer and hair regeneration.
Talk
Interneuron Cell Therapy for Drug-resistant Focal Epilepsy
Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common type of adult focal epilepsy, with one-third of individuals experiencing refractory seizures. We developed a functionally restorative cell therapy comprising GABAergic interneurons to replenish the corresponding endogenous population, which is compromised in TLE. The talk will cover preclinical and clinical progress to date.
Emerging Therapeutics Showcase:
Neurona Therapeutics
Neurona Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company focused on discovering and developing allogeneic neural cell therapies to treat chronic diseases of the nervous system.
Session Abstract – PMWC 2025 Silicon Valley
The PMWC 2025 Emerging Therapeutics Showcase will provide a 15-30 minute time slot for selected companies and researchers in the CRISPR, Cell and Gene Therapy fields. Major advancements in safer cell- and gene-level editing technologies are bringing us closer toward cures for life-threatening disorders, from cancer to HIV to Huntington’s disease. Cell therapy, in which cellular material such as T cells capable of fighting cancer cells, is injected into a patient, has been demonstrated safe and effective. The popular new CRISPR tool that has been used to edit the genetic code of nearly any organism will have an enormous impact on human health. More than a dozen clinical trials employing CRISPR on human cells are already underway.
- Emerging Therapeutics/Cell Therapy
- Emerging Therapeutics/CVD
- Emerging Therapeutics/Gene Therapy
- Emerging Therapeutics/Immunotherapy
- Emerging Therapeutics/Radiation Therapy
