Health Could result in personalized models to test diagnostic and treatment strategies Kira Sampson BWH Communications A new model that allows scientists to rapidly create Parkinsons disease in a petri dish using stem cells could provide personalized diagnostic and treatment methods, according to researchers at Harvard-affiliated Brigham andWomensHospital. The studys results are published inNeuron. Existing Parkinsons in a dish models can effectively transform stem cells into brain cells, but not quickly enough to study patient-specific cellular pathologies to guide tailored treatment strategies. This is important because patients with Parkinsons disease are diverse and a one-size-fits-all treatment strategy may not work for some patients. The Brigham research teams technology not only enables the transformation from stem cells to brain cells to occur reproducibly within weeks instead of months, but also allows researchers to develop models that reflect the diverse protein misfolding pathologies that can occur in the brain in that timeframe