BrightFocus Foundation
BrightFocus Foundation

Patient-Specific Stem Cells for Studies of Glaucoma

Principal Investigator

Jason Meyer, PhD

Jason Meyer, PhD

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Indianapolis, IN, United States
Acknowledgement
Recipient of the Thomas R. Lee award for National Glaucoma Research

Project Goals

Dr. Meyer and colleagues are developing stem cells from individual patients with glaucoma that can be used to develop the cell types that are lost due to this disease. The researchers are using these cells to study specific features of glaucoma and obtain ideas to develop future patient-specific retina cell replacement therapies.

Project Summary

Dr. Meyer and colleagues will obtain stem cells from patients with glaucoma in order to study the disease on a cellular level. They aim to genetically reprogram adult cells such as skin cells from each patient so as to develop a unique type of stem cell known as "induced pluripotent stem cells" or "iPS” cells. These cells become “unspecified,” that is, they can be guided to develop into any cell type of the body, including those eye cells that are affected by glaucoma. To identify inherited factors underlying this disease, these iPS cells will be established from patients with a genetic predisposition to developing glaucoma. The researchers will also use the iPS cells to screen new glaucoma drugs.

Once this study is complete, it is foreseeable that Meyer and colleagues will have established a new system using patient-specific cells that can be used for future pharmacological developments.

Publications

Sridhar A, Steward MM, Meyer JS. Nonxenogeneic growth and retinal differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells. Stem Cells Transl Med. 2013 Apr;2(4):255-64. doi: 10.5966/sctm.2012-0101. Epub 2013 Mar 19. PubMed Icon Google Scholar Icon

Zhong X, Gutierrez C, Xue T, Hampton C, Vergara MN, Cao LH, Peters A, Park TS, Zambidis ET, Meyer JS, Gamm DM, Yau KW, Canto-Soler MV. Generation of three-dimensional retinal tissue with functional photoreceptors from human iPSCs. Nat Commun. 2014 Jun 10;5:4047. doi: 10.1038/ncomms5047. PubMed Icon Google Scholar Icon

Sridhar A, Ohlemacher SK, Langer KB, Meyer JS. Robust Differentiation of mRNA-Reprogrammed Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Toward a Retinal Lineage. Stem Cells Transl Med. 2016 Mar 1. pii: sctm.2015-0093. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed Icon Google Scholar Icon
 

First published on: July 10, 2012

Last modified on: September 30, 2023