Synthetic retina to restore eyesight in cases of blindness due to retinitis pigmentosa

Pia Cosma

Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG), Barcelona, Spain

Retinal degenerative diseases are a heterogeneous collection of pathologies that affect eyesight, some of which can cause blindness. Billions of people around the world suffer from one of these pathologies, the most common of which is retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative disease that affects one in every 3,000 to 5,000 people. In this case, the patient progressively loses the photoreceptors in the retina, which are the cells in the eye that convert light into electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain. Due to the loss of photoreceptors, there is no cure when it reaches advanced stages.

However, even in cases of blindness, part of the retina remains functional. The project will take advantage of this fact to develop a synthetic retina that will connect with the patient’s functional retina to help them regain vision.

This regenerative therapy will be tested in mouse models of the disease to see if vision can be effectively restored. The results obtained by the project will form the basis for future clinical trials in humans. The ultimate goal of the project is to identify a new treatment for various types of blindness.

• Rui L. Reis, 3B’s Research Group / Instituto de Investigação I3Bs, Universidade de Minho, Portugal

Restoring vision by integrating optic nerve organoids in retinitis pigmentosa rat visual circuity

€997,293.00