A new study investigating the growth of photoreceptors may have implications for the treatment of retinal diseases that cause blindness. The study, published in Cell Reports, was led by Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (SCRMC) researcher Timothy Gomez, professor of neuroscience, Sarah Rempel, a postdoctoral researcher in the Gomez lab, and SCRMC researcher David Gamm, professor of ophthalmology.
Together, the researchers studied how photoreceptors grown from stem cells extend axons, the bodies electrical cables, to contact existing neurons. Gaining a better understanding of this process could allow researchers to grow photoreceptors in the lab and then transplant them into patients to restore damaged tissue. Read more.