In Vitro Modeling of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

AMD affects millions of patients worldwide and affects the macula, a region rich in cone photoreceptors that are critical for high acuity and color vision. This project aims to directly forward program human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) or transdifferentiate human fibroblasts into cone photoreceptors. The latter approach will preserve cellular age and epigenetic profiles important for modeling age-related diseases. Our goal is to harness human stem cell technology to generate mature, functional human cone photoreceptors for in vitro modeling of AMD and development of novel therapies.