$IVST Dr. Lachlan Thompson, Associate Professor is a Principal Research Fellow at the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health. He heads a research program dedicated to regenerative approaches to repair of the central nervous system, with a special focus on the use of pluripotent stem cells for functional reconstruction of circuitry affected in Parkinson’s disease, stroke and motor neuron disease. He has contributed more than 50 research papers on this topic in leading journals including the Journal of Neuroscience, Neurobiology of Disease, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Brain and Cell Reports. Dr. Thompson is a partner investigator in the Australian government’s major Stem Cells initiative where he sits on the committee for clinical translation and commercialisation and plays an active role in contributing to policy making on the regulation of experimental stem cell therapies. He also sits on the board of the Network for European CNS Transplantation and Repair and is president of the Asia-Pacific Association for Neural Transplantation and Repair. Dr Thompson brings a wealth of experience in cutting-edge technology driving pre-clinical research in regenerative approaches to brain repair and also in understanding of the regulatory frameworks governing clinical translation and commercialisation of stem cell therapies.