M. Valeria Canto-Soler - Lecture Wednesday 26, Oct. - Runde Auditorium Domus Medica 14:00 *Invitation* International Speaker Seminar: "3D retinal organoids: new frontiers for stem cell-based clinical applications"

The establishment of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology has opened an array of possibilities for the development of therapies for retinal diseases. In an effort to bring hiPSC closer to the clinical arena, we recently established a novel strategy to direct hiPSC to differentiate into retinal organoids that faithfully recreate the histoarchitectural organization of the human neural retina in vivo, including highly differentiated functional photoreceptors. In this seminar I will present the most relevant aspects of our 3D retinal organoid system, discuss the challenges this system still presents for clinical applications, and describe some of the strategies we are currently pursuing to overcome these challenges.