Stem cell treatment for retinitis pigmentosa gets $5 million boost

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a voter-approved initiative to accelerate stem cell research, has awarded  Shaomei Wang, MD, PhD, $4.9 million to advance her work in retinitis pigmentosa.

A member of the research team at the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute, Dr. Wang leads a laboratory working on a new approach to delaying the degeneration of retinal cells. Dr. Wang says the funding will spur projects in late-stage preclinical development.

Preclinical studies within her laboratory have already led to 3 clinical trials using stem cells to treat macular degeneration. The retinitis pigmentosa studies showed success in delaying retinal degeneration in 2 animal species using transplanted neural stem cells. This research is ready to be translated to clinical trials.