Drug guides stem cells to desired location, improving their ability to heal

Last updated: August 17, 2026

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have created a drug that can lure stem cells to damaged tissue and improve treatment efficacy — a scientific first and major advance for the field of regenerative medicine. The discovery, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could improve current stem cell therapies designed to treat such neurological disorders as spinal cord injury, stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?(ALS) and other neurodegenerative disorders; and expand their use to new conditions, such as heart disease or arthritis.

Toxic cells (green) disappeared when mice with a neurodegenerative condition received both therapeutic stem cells (red) and the drug SDV1a-which corresponded with longer lives and delayed symptom onset. These results suggest that SDV1a can be used to improve the efficacy of stem cell treatments.

“The ability to instruct a stem cell where to go in the body or to a particular region of a given organ is the Holy Grail for regenerative medicine,” says Evan Y. Snyder, M.D. Ph.D., professor and director of the Center for Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine at Sanford Burnham Prebys and senior author of the study. “Now, for the first time ever, we can direct a stem cell to a desired location and focus its therapeutic impact.”

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