Kyoto University Hospital is expected to use the new technology to transplant nerve cells produced from iPS cells of Parkinson’s disease patients to the patients as early as 2016.

“If all goes as planned, we want to complete studies on the technology’s safety and efficiency this year and apply for clinical research to the health ministry in fiscal 2014,” said Jun Takahashi, a professor at Kyoto University’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application and a member of the research team.

Kyoto University Hospital will prepare to set up a third-party committee to examine the research plan in June at the earliest.

Under the plan, tens of millions of nerve cells will be transplanted to each of the six patients of non-hereditary Parkinson’s disease. It will require nine months to produce nerve cells and make other preparations.

The finding will be published in Stem Cell Reports, a U.S. scientific journal, on March 7.