Associate Professor Michael O’Connor has developed methods to generate large numbers of human lens cells from pluripotent stem cells.
Using these lab-derived human lens cells he and his team have mass-produced miniature, light-focussing human lenses, called human micro-lenses.
Dr O’Connor and his team are using these human micro-lenses to better understand how adult cataract develops, with the aim of identifying drug treatments to stop or delay development of adult cataract.
Dr O’Connor and his team also have early data that shows human lens cells can survive and create human lens tissue in pre-clinical models of cataract.
With new funding, Dr O’Connor and his team will be able to assess whether human lens regeneration, through lens cell transplantation, could provide an improved treatment for childhood cataract.
