Daniëlle Swinkels (Radboudumc, group Alex Garanto) received an NWO XS grant entitled ‘Lipids & Diseases: Establishing novel in vitro models to study lipid-related metabolic retinal disorders’.
Traditional research into metabolic eye disorders heavily relied on mouse models. However, ethical concerns and species-specific differences limited the study and development of therapeutics. Consequently, there is growing interest in employing human-based in vitro systems, like iPSC-derived retinal mini-organoids. However, the suitability of these models for modelling lipid-based retinal disorders remains uncertain.
This project aims to assess if these retinal mini-organoids can be used to study these lipid-related retinal disorders, by using personalized retinal models. This would benefit studies for retinal disorders that are lipid-based to unravel disease mechanisms and develop therapeutics in reliable models.
Source: NWO
