Stroke affects over 12 million people globally each year and leaves the most survivors with long-term disability, creating a strong need for stroke recovery therapies. Stem cell transplantation shows promising results for stroke therapy. One of the main reasons is that stem cells can release beneficial factors to stimulate stroke recovery. But the treatment efficacy is low. This is due to two main reasons: First, this therapy method injects stem cells at the stroke site, which can cause a large number of stem cells to die. Second, after injection, the stem cells do not always stay within or travel to the stroke site. This can result in insufficient release of beneficial factors to the site. To solve these problems, we have formed a multidisciplinary team that combines knowledge in biomaterials, stem cell and organoid biology, and stroke recovery. We will modify and protect the stem cells using a new polymer platform. Our approach is different from prior approaches which mix many stem cells within a biomaterial matrix. We coat each stem cell individually, resulting in more uniform effect on the stem cells. This is done by coating each individual cell with an FDA approved soft biomaterial and a short peptide. The soft biomaterial has three functions. One is to protect the stem cells during injection and improve stem cell survival. The second function is to control and optimize beneficial factor release from stem cells. The third is to improve targeting of the stem cells to the stroke site. With our solution, more stem cells will survive and reach the stroke area. They are also more likely to stay in the stroke area due to our peptide targeting. We will optimize this system using a stroke model in a dish and in translational stroke models. Our project aims to develop a polymeric platform with individual stem cell control as a new method to improve neural repair.