Fall 2025 Grantee Highlight:
Ophir Klein

Ophir Klein, MD, PhD

Executive Director of Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s and Executive Vice Dean for Children’s Services, Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects millions of people, causing chronic pain, loss of tissue integrity, and, for many patients, progression to surgery. Existing treatments can dampen inflammation, but none can repair the intestinal lining once it has been damaged. Ophir Klein and his team are developing a fundamentally new class of treatment: Active Instructive Donor (AID) cells, which are living therapeutics engineered from human stem cells to sense injury and trigger healing directly at the site of damage.

Unlike conventional drugs that deliver a fixed dose, AID cells respond dynamically to their environment, releasing regenerative signals only when and where they are needed. The team will evaluate AID cells in culture models and combine them with human intestinal organoids to restore damaged tissue in a mouse model of colitis. If successful, this approach could offer IBD patients lasting regenerative repair and open the door to cell-based therapies across many organs that struggle to heal.