Novo Nordisk Transfers Parkinson’s Cell Therapy Program to AI Startup Cellular Intelligence

Novo Nordisk has transferred global rights to its clinical-stage Parkinson’s disease cell therapy program STEM-PD to Cellular Intelligence, an AI-focused biotechnology startup that plans to use predictive cell modeling to accelerate development and manufacturing.

The companies announced the agreement on 05/11. Novo Nordisk will take an equity stake in the Boston-based startup and retain milestone and royalty rights tied to the therapy’s future commercialization. Financial terms were not disclosed.

STEM-PD is an allogeneic stem cell-derived therapy designed to replace dopamine-producing neurons lost in Parkinson’s disease. The program already has Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and has cleared an investigational new drug (IND) application. The therapy entered first-in-human clinical testing in Sweden in 2023.

According to the program page published by Cellular Intelligence, the company plans to advance STEM-PD into a mid-stage clinical study beginning next year. The company said its AI platform will be used to optimize cell differentiation, manufacturing consistency, and viability during production.

The transaction follows Novo Nordisk’s broader restructuring of parts of its cell therapy operations as it shifts resources toward obesity and diabetes programs. Cellular Intelligence CEO Micha Breakstone told the Boston Globe that the startup opened a Copenhagen laboratory and hired former Novo Nordisk employees who previously worked on the Parkinson’s program.

Parkinson’s Cell Therapy Moves Into AI-Driven Development

The STEM-PD program originated from research led at Lund University in Sweden, where researchers developed methods to convert embryonic stem cells into dopaminergic neurons. The broader collaboration also includes researchers and clinicians from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Imperial College London, and Skåne University Hospital.

Cell therapies involve living cells that are transplanted or injected into patients. In Parkinson’s disease, the goal is to restore dopamine-producing neurons that progressively degenerate as the disease advances.

Nuno Mendonça, CMO at Cellular Intelligence“There are a lot of symptomatic treatments,” Nuno Mendonça, Chief Medical Officer at Cellular Intelligence, told Drug Discovery & Development. “You take them and you improve some of your motor symptoms, but the underlying process goes on.”

The company says its platform tracks how stem cells change over time under different biological conditions, allowing researchers to predict how small adjustments in differentiation protocols affect purity, viability, and manufacturing quality. Breakstone said the system analyzes temporally resolved cellular data instead of static snapshots.

The approach reflects a broader expansion of AI infrastructure inside biotechnology and clinical development workflows, including recent deployments focused on oncology trial analysis and operational modeling.

Novo Nordisk Continues Partnership Model for Cell Therapy Assets

The Cellular Intelligence agreement follows another recent Novo Nordisk partnership involving stem-cell technologies. Earlier this year, the company expanded its collaboration with Canada-based Aspect Biosystems around diabetes-related bioprinted tissue therapeutics.

Cellular Intelligence was incorporated in 2023 and has raised more than $60 million from investors including Khosla Ventures, AMD Ventures, SciFi VC, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The company previously operated under the name Somite AI before rebranding earlier this year.

Large pharmaceutical and biotech companies have increasingly invested in AI systems tied to manufacturing, diagnostics, and therapeutic development as computational biology expands beyond early-stage drug discovery. Recent projects have also included AI-linked infrastructure initiatives for regenerative medicine manufacturing and bioprocess optimization.