Dr. Youngryun Cha leads the neurodegenerative disease team at Cellivery Therapeutic Inc. in Seoul, Korea. His current responsibility is to clarify functions of an improved cell-permeable (iCP)-Parkin (protein encoded by the PARK2 gene that is linked to Parkinson's) and develop it as a first-in-class protein-based therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD). Dr. Cha received his doctoral degree in developmental biology from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, US and conducted post-doctoral training at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, US. His previous work focused on the formation of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels (fluid that baths tissues) during zebrafish development. One of his seminal works identified that the lymphatic network develops through interactions between blood and lymphatic cell signaling. He has also elucidated the involvement of molecular signaling in capillary changes in the retina and heart in diabetes.