Year 2
The broad goal of this project is to develop a stem-cell derived replacement for retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells in the eye, which die in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Since RPE cells are often genetically defective in AMD, we will correct this defect in the stem-cell derived RPE cells before transplanting them into patients. These transplanted cells will express specific proteins that will protect them from being attacked by the innate immune system. During our second year of funding, we transplanted human stem-cell derived RPE cells into the eyes of mice that are blind due to a genetic defect in the rpe65 gene. We showed that the human cells integrated into the RPE layer of these mice. Further, we demonstrated that the transplanted cells partially rescued the blindness in rpe65 / mice. We also generated and tested the recombinant viruses that will protect RPE cells from attack by the innate immune system. We are on schedule to complete the planned studies for this project during the final year of funding.