Tilo Kunath, PhD

Dr. Tilo Kunath is Professor of Regenerative Neurobiology and Co-Director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. After training in Canada and completing his PhD in developmental biology at the University of Toronto, he joined Edinburgh as a postdoc and later became a Parkinson’s UK Senior Fellow and Chancellor’s Fellow. His research focuses on Parkinson’s disease mechanisms using human iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons, particularly in relation to α-synuclein biology. He developed the first SNCA-triplication and SNCA-null stem cell lines, pioneered cryopreservation of dopaminergic progenitors, and established microfluidic models of α-synuclein spread. His group integrates CRISPR engineering with high-throughput assays to dissect variant effects in a disease-relevant context, contributing to multi-centre studies on GBA1 function. He received the Tom Isaacs Award for Patient Engagement in 2019 and serves on grant panels for Cure Parkinson’s and Parkinson’s UK.