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Japanese research team follow stem cells success with self-assembly of human retina

Research on mouse embryonic stem cells, published by a Japanese team at the RIKEN Centre for Developmental Biology, Kobe in early 2011, has been followed by equally exciting data using human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). The new research has suggested that an optic cup structure can form by self-organisation in human ESC culture and that a method to store stratified neural retina from human ESCs could advance such technologies to clinical application. According to the authors of the study, Drs. Tokushige Nakano and Yoshiki Sasai, the capability to store cryopreserved stratified neural retina may provide “a versatile solution for quality control in large scale preparation of clinical-grade retinal tissues”.