Pooja Teotia, Divyan A. Chopra, Shashank Manohar Dravid, Matthew J. Van Hook, Fang Qiu, John Morrison, Angie Rizzino, Iqbal Ahmad

Glaucoma is a complex group of diseases wherein a selective degeneration of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) leads to irreversible loss of vision. A comprehensive approach to glaucomatous RGC degeneration may include stem cells to functionally replace dead neurons through transplantation and understand RGCs vulnerability using a disease in a dish stem cell model. Both approaches require the directed generation of stable, functional, and target-specific RGCs from renewable sources of cells, i.e., the embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Here, we demonstrate a rapid and safe, stage-specific, chemically defined protocol that selectively generates RGCs across species, including human, by recapitulating the developmental mechanism. The de novo generated RGCs from pluripotent cells are similar to native RGCs at the molecular, biochemical, functional levels. They also express axon guidance molecules, and discriminate between specific and non-specific targets, and are non-tumorigenic. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.