Breakthroughs in Regenerative Eye Research Closer Than You Think
RENSSELAER N.Y., June 08, 2018 – As the field of regenerative medicine has progressed to deliver breakthroughs throughout medicine; leading discoveries have been made in ophthalmology. A recent article published in Cell Stem Cell (Volume 22, Number 6), Regenerating Eye Tissues to Preserve and Restore Vision, written by Drs. Jeffrey Stern and Sally Temple of the Neural Stem Cell Institute (NSCI) and colleagues, reviews major milestones in ophthalmic regenerative medicine to transform the treatment of diverse eye diseases including corneal disease, glaucoma, cataract, and age-related macular degeneration. “The eye has become a focus for Stem Cell therapy,” said Dr. Sally Temple, the Scientific Director of NSCI in Rensselaer, NY. This review highlights emerging therapies such as transplantation of stem cells for eye repair, the use of synthetic biocompatible materials and natural scaffolds with cells delivered to the eye, and activation of endogenous eye stem cells. While stem-cell based regenerative therapies for eye diseases range from transplantation to coaxing in situ stem cells to regenerate defective tissue, the novel regenerative therapies raise new challenges about how to make therapies available to patients and how the patients’ immune system will respond. Future strategies to overcome these challenges include matching stem cell transplants to patients to mitigate rejection; optimizing cell product manufacturing for safe and adequate supply, and establishing sound regulation to curb the spread of unapproved “therapies” that have caused tragic outcomes. Cell Stem Cell also featured the cover art by co-author Tian Isabel Yangzi submitted with the review.
Click here to read the original article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2018.05.013
About NSCI: The Neural Stem Cell Institute (NSCI) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and the first independent, neural stem cell research institute in the United States. Headquartered at the East Campus of the University at Albany in Rensselaer, NY, NSCI is a unique organization that produces leading stem cell research to develop new therapies for diseases of the central nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Age-related Macular Degeneration. NSCI aims to harness the power of stem cells to ease the suffering caused by injury and disease of the brain, spinal cord, and retina. NSCI has over 30 individuals focused on finding new ways to promote nervous system repair and has published numerous articles on groundbreaking stem cell discoveries and their implications for neural disease cures. For additional information, visit https://www.neuralsci.org/.
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