[extropy-chat] Breakthrough eye cell creation in lab

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

>From TVNZ: US scientists today announced a breakthrough in human
embryonic stem cell research they said could produce a treatment in
two years for a type of blindness afflicting those over 60.
In an article published on the website of the Journal of Cloning and
Stem Cells (JCSC), they said they had, using stem cells, cultivated
retinal cells in the laboratory.
The epithelium pigment cells of the retina, they said, are essential
to vision because they ensure the correct functioning of the eye's
light receptors. Deterioration of the epithelium pigment provokes a
progressive destruction of the receptors which often leads to macular
degeneration, a principal cause of blindness in those over 60 and for
which no effective treatment exists. More than 30 million people
worldwide, including nine million in the United States, suffer from
macular degeneration, said the article. "Retinal cell transplants
could be one of the first applications of human embryonic stem cell
technology," said Robert Lanza, director of Advanced Cell Technology,
a biotechnology firm in Worcester, Massachusetts, and co-author of the
JCSC article. "With the right resources, we hope to get this into the
clinic in one to two years." "This very exciting paper describes the
first derivation of human cells that will be used to treat some forms
of blindness," said Ian Wilmut, JCSC editor-in-chief and head of the
Department of Gene Expression and Development at the Roslin Institute,
the Scottish firm that pioneered animal cloning.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/no_keyword_story_skin/449515?format=html