Abstract

Transplantation of stem cell-derived retinal neurons holds great promise for treating blindness caused by Glaucoma, Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Diabetic Retinopathy, and other debilitating diseases. My lab is interested in improving cell therapy success through the engineering of the retinal microenvironment that will allow stem-cell-derived or reprogrammed neurons (RGCs) to continue their normal development after transplantation. Since there is no neurogenesis in the adult mammalian retina, the transplanted or newborn reprogrammed neurons lack exogenous cues for survival, synaptogenesis, selection, metabolic and physiologic maturation. I will describe our framework for cell type-specific modulation of the microenvironment that allows to minimize innate immune response and improve survival and migration of donor stem-cell derived RGCs.