Dr. Mike O. Karl from the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and DFG Research Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden - Cluster of Excellence at the TU Dresden (CRTD) was awarded the Novartis Pharma "EYEnovative sponsorship prize". He is working on a human retina cell model (retina organoid) developed from patients´ own induced pluripotent stem cells. For his research ne cooperates with Alexander Storch, professor of neurodegenerative Diseases at the Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus.

The retina organoid is used to examine and characterize a disease, called Juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (JNCL). The JNCL causes loss of vision in childhood. At the age of 7-10 initially retina cells degenerate. In the course of the life, other nerve cells also die off.

Dr. Karl is convinced that unlike to animal models the human cell-based model offers new opportunities for research into the disease mechanisms of JNCL, to discover new therapeutic strategies and approaches for validation of therapies, as it said in a press release.

The prize is worth a total of € 25,000.

Source:
https://idw-online.de/en/news629788
(in German) http://www.crt-dresden.de