ARVO 2012 - Interested in Regenerative Ophthalmology?

[EyeRegenMed]

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ARVO 2012 starts this weekend.

I am particularly interested in developments in ocular tissue-engineering and regenerative ophthalmology. As such, I started a twitter account to cover new developments in this field: @EyeRegenMed

Follow my feed if your interested in the topic or just follow #ARVO2012 for all shared experiences from the conference.

If you are wondering what constitutes regenerative ophthalmology, I would like to direct you to this recent Lancet article that describes the preliminary results of sub-retinal transplantation of hECS-derived RPE cell in patients with Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy and Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

 

[Visionary]

This is actually a very exciting field of research, though still in it's relative infancy. I have wondered whether, once this technology is refined, patients with sub-retinal scars may even be helped. Currently, removal of scar tissue, as per the Sub-retinal Surgery Trials, is not terribly helpful. The problem is that healthy tissue is removed with the scar tissue. If the absent tissue could be regenerated with stem cell technology, it may be possible to rehabilitate these eyes. A very exciting prospect!

 

[EyeRegenMed]

Indeed - exciting and lots of potential but very early in development. The sub-retinal stem cell transplant study was only for safety and tolerability. I hope to learn about potential efficacy trials as they develop.

I am very fascinated by the science/technology and I will share the exciting research developments as I learn about them.

I'll be sure to try to find out about advances in sub-retinal scar tissue removal at ARVO.