Exploring color blindness through human retinas grown in lab

eyes

paper published October 11 in Science uses a retina grown outside the body to show how cones develop into the eyes’ color sensors.

Robert Johnston, a developmental biologist at Johns Hopkins University, and his colleagues wanted to understand how, exactly, developing cells in the human eye decide to become blue, green or red.

Johnston’s team decided to use human stem cells to grow mini retinas, or retinal organoids, in the lab. They then let these miniature organs mature in a dish for nine months to a year “We were growing for them for basically the time that it takes to make a baby,” he says.

At the end of maturation the mini retinas looked remarkably like real human ones.

According to Johnston, this research could help develop future therapies for eye disorders such as color blindness or macular degeneration, age-related damage to the retina that can result in vision loss. Organoids could not only provide a platform to study those conditions in more detail, but now the fact scientists can control the types of photoreceptors that grow in laboratory retinas means it might be possible to one day “transplant these things directly [into patients] or preprogram stem cells and let them grow up to be the particular cells that we want.”

Read full, original post: Lab-Grown Human Retinas Illuminate How Eyes Develop Color Vision

{{ reviewsTotal }}{{ options.labels.singularReviewCountLabel }}
{{ reviewsTotal }}{{ options.labels.pluralReviewCountLabel }}
{{ options.labels.newReviewButton }}
{{ userData.canReview.message }}
screenshot at  pm

Are pesticide residues on food something to worry about?

In 1962, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring drew attention to pesticides and their possible dangers to humans, birds, mammals and the ...
glp menu logo outlined

Newsletter Subscription

* indicates required
Email Lists
glp menu logo outlined

Get news on human & agricultural genetics and biotechnology delivered to your inbox.