Critical infrastructure to support new stem cell-derived treatments for patients with age-related macular degeneration in Minnesota

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a devastating disease of aging and the leading cause of blindness in people aged 50 and older in Minnesota. At the University of Minnesota we have devised a way to generate the retinal cells that are lost in AMD from each patient using stem cell technology so that we can use them for personalized drug screening or for transplantation where necessary. This proposal requests funding to support the critical training and technology infrastructure now required to bring these new methods to treat a disease with no current therapy to patients in Minnesota.