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Curing Blindness with Stem Cells: Hope, Reality, and Challenges

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Recent Advances in Retinal Degeneration

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 613))

This article is a summary of a presentation at the XII International Symposium on Retinal Degeneration in Bariloche, Argentina, in October of 2006, in which the author presented his personal views of the contributions that the study of retinal cell differentiation during normal embryonic development can make towards overcoming the limitations that have so far prevented curing blindness through stem cell transplantation. The talk was illustratedmainly with examples derived fromresearch on retinal cell differentiation in the author’s laboratory, and the same approach will be kept in this article; for a broader coverage of the field, the reader is referred to several comprehensive reviews, e.g., (Adler, 2000; Boulton and Albon, 2004; Galli-Resta, 2001; Hatakeyama and Kageyama, 2004; Jean et al., 1998; Livesey and Cepko, 2001; Lupo et al., 2000; Malicki, 2004; Marquardt and Gruss, 2002; Rapaport et al., 2004; Vetter and Brown, 2001; Zhang et al., 2002).

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  1. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland

    Ruben Adler

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  1. Ruben Adler
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  1. University of Oklahoma Health Science Ctr, 608 Stanton L. Young Blvd., DMEI 409, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA

    Robert E. Anderson

  2. USCF School of Medicine, 10 Kirkham Street, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA

    Matthew M. LaVail

  3. Cole Eye Institute The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Ave. (i31), Cleveland, OH 44195, USA

    Joe G. Hollyfield

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Adler, R. (2008). Curing Blindness with Stem Cells: Hope, Reality, and Challenges. In: Anderson, R.E., LaVail, M.M., Hollyfield, J.G. (eds) Recent Advances in Retinal Degeneration. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 613. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-74904-4_1

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