It is already time for the 11th and second-to-last edition of our monthly blog in 2020. We hope you enjoyed last month’s post about Neuroengineering as well as our previous posts about a variety of scientific topics (MEA for drug screening, Beta Cells, Burst Detection, Axons, Retina, Organoids, Human iPSC-Derived Neurons, Neurons and Viruses and Spike Sorting).

In our November edition, we highlight the latest developments on Retinal Organoids. We highlighted the article written by Cowan et al. which developed functioning human retinas in a dish. Please find a summary below.

Cell Types of the Human Retina and Its Organoids at Single-Cell Resolution.
by Cameron S. Cowan, Magdalena Renner, Martina De Gennaro, Brigitte Gross-Scherf, David Goldblum,Yanyan Hou, Martin Munz, Tiago M. Rodrigues, Jacek Krol, Tamas Szikra, Rachel Cuttat, Annick Waldt,Panagiotis Papasaikas, Roland Diggelmann, Claudia P. Patino-Alvarez, Patricia Galliker, Stefan E. Spirig,Dinko Pavlinic Nadine Gerber-Hollbach, Sven Schuierer, Aldin Srdanovic, Marton Balogh, Riccardo Panero, Akos Kusnyerik, Arnold Szabo, Michael B. Stadler, Selim Orgu, Simone Picelli, Pascal W. Hasler, Andreas Hierlemann, Hendrik P.N. Scholl, Guglielmo Roma, Florian Nigsch, and Botond Roska. Cell. September 2020.

From the moment that Dr. Yoshiki Sasai showed that it was possible to derive mammalian retina tissue form pluripotent stem cells, three-dimensional retina organoids ignited the promise of novel therapy development for hereditary retinal degenerative diseases. Cohen et al., come one step closer to achieving this goal by developing human retinal organoids that not only mimic the cell-type specific diversity and synaptic connectivity of the human retina but also its light sensitivity. The newly generated retina organoids develop at a similar rate to human retina development in vivo and faithfully recapitulated its cell type specific diseases. These added properties will allow scientist to study developmental retinal disease mechanisms in the dish, and initiates the opportunity for personalized retinal therapies.

Read the paper here.

Click here and here to find out more information about the article written by Cowan et al.

Although we decided to highlight the article by Cowan et al., we selected four scientific articles that delve into the topic of Retinal Organoids. These can be found below:

  1. Generation, transcriptome profiling, and functional validation of cone-rich human retinal organoids.
    by Sangbae Kim, Albert Lowe, Rachayata Dharmat, Seunghoon Lee, Leah A Owen, Jun Wang, Akbar Shakoor, Yumei Li, Denise J Morgan, Andre A Hejazi, Ales Cvekl, Margaret M DeAngelis, Z Jimmy Zhou, Rui Chen, Wei Liu. PNAS. May 2019.
    Read the paper here.
  2. Semi-Automated Approach for Retinal Tissue Differentiation.
    by Evgenii Kegeles,, Tatiana Perepelkina, and Petr Baranov. Translational Vision Science & Technology. September 2020.
    Read the paper here.
  3. Three-Dimensional Retinal Organoids Facilitate the Investigation of Retinal Ganglion Cell Development, Organization and Neurite Outgrowth from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells.
    by Clarisse M. Fligor, Kirstin B. Langer, Akshayalakshmi Sridhar, Yuan Ren, Priya K. Shields, Michael C. Edler, Sarah K. Ohlemacher, Valentin M. Sluch, Donald J. Zack, Chi Zhang, Daniel M. Suter & Jason S. Meye. Scientific Reports. September 2018.
    Read the paper here. 
  4. Gene Correction Reverses Ciliopathy and Photoreceptor Loss in iPSC-Derived Retinal Organoids from Retinitis Pigmentosa Patients.
    by Wen-Li Deng, Mei-Ling Gao, Xin-Lan Lei, Ji-Neng Lv, Huan Zhao, Kai-Wen He, Xi-Xi Xia, Ling-Yun Li, Yu-Chen Chen, Yan-Ping Li, Deng Pan, Tian Xue, Zi-Bing Jin. Stem Cell Reports. June 2018.
    Read the paper here.