How iPSC Works
Using a novel patient-specific stem cell-based therapy, researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) prevented blindness in animal models of geographic atrophy, the advanced "dry" form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is a leading cause of vision loss among people age 65 and older. The protocols established by the animal study, published January 16 in Science Translational Medicine (STM), set the stage for a first-in-human clinical trial testing the therapy in people with geographic atrophy, for which there is currently no treatment.
As pictured in this illustration, researchers will take a patient's blood cells and convert them in a lab to induced Pluripotent Stem cells (iPS cells) which are capable of becoming any type of cell in the body. iPS cells would then be programmed to become retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, the type of cell that dies early in the geographic atrophy form of AMD.
Read more: www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-researchers-res...
Credit: National Eye Institute, NIH
How iPSC Works
Using a novel patient-specific stem cell-based therapy, researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) prevented blindness in animal models of geographic atrophy, the advanced "dry" form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is a leading cause of vision loss among people age 65 and older. The protocols established by the animal study, published January 16 in Science Translational Medicine (STM), set the stage for a first-in-human clinical trial testing the therapy in people with geographic atrophy, for which there is currently no treatment.
As pictured in this illustration, researchers will take a patient's blood cells and convert them in a lab to induced Pluripotent Stem cells (iPS cells) which are capable of becoming any type of cell in the body. iPS cells would then be programmed to become retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, the type of cell that dies early in the geographic atrophy form of AMD.
Read more: www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-researchers-res...
Credit: National Eye Institute, NIH