The RIKEN CDB’s Laboratory for Retinal Regeneration (Masayo Takahashi, Project Leader) will take part in a new collaborative research project launched between RIKEN, Santen Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Santen), and the Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation (FBRI) to identify new drug candidates for treating retinal degenerative diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, using retinal cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

A joint laboratory will be established in the research building of FBRI’s Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation, and the Laboratory for Retinal Regeneration will contribute to the collaboration by bringing a wealth of expertise for driving differentiation and induction of iPSCs into retinal cells, and Santen will take the lead in evaluating the drug candidates. The three parties plan to develop disease models reflecting pathological conditions of retinal degenerative diseases from iPSCs and identify potential drug candidates using the disease models with a view to develop new treatments for these diseases.