Dr. Lucian Del Priore Discusses Stem Cell Therapeutics for Degenerative Retinal Diseases

Vision Seminar guest speaker, Lucian Del Priore, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at Yale University and chief of ophthalmology at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), summarized decades of basic bench research and advanced clinical research in the field of stem cell transplantation.

Dr. Del Priore was one of the pioneers of this form of therapy, and helped facilitate the first clinical trial using sub-retinal injection of stem cells to treat patients with Stargardt macular dystrophy and age-related macular degeneration.

Dr. Del Priore discussed the barriers of successful treatment with stem cells, including the lack of relevant animal models, and the inability to determine functionality and survival of implanted cells. Successful methods of ex-vivo Bruch’s membrane rejuvenation and re-engineering were not yet translated into clinical practice. “This form of treatment by using stem cells, has great potential to be successful in eye diseases, because of the specific ocular anatomical configuration and the small volume and low cell numbers that are needed”, said Dr. Del Priore.