Dr. Virginia Barrett Mattis has a broad background in human genetics, neurodegenerative disease, stem cells and molecular biology. Her research has centered on elucidation of translational therapies for neurodegenerative disease. After transitioning from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics, Inc. (FCDI)—a company founded by stem-cell pioneer Jamie Thomson with the mission of creating human induced pluripotent stem cells and differentiating them into different cell types at large scale for research use—she took over the leadership position of the Parkinson’s disease (PD) therapeutics program. The FCDI foundation of stem cell knowledge has produced a stem cell-derived dopamine-producing neuron progenitor that is well-characterized and manufactured using a robust and repeatable manufacturing process. The long-term academic collaboration of FCDI with Professors Jeffrey Kordower and Patrik Brundin has yielded a succession of fruitful studies that have guided the work forward and demonstrated the potency of FCDI’s proposed PD cell therapy.