UCLA scientists receive CIRM grants to advance stem cell-based treatments for vision loss

Mapping retinal environments to improve regenerative therapies for vision loss

Dr. Aya Barzelay-Wollman, assistant professor of ophthalmology

Millions of people with geographic atrophy — an advanced, late-stage form of dry age-related macular degeneration — experience progressive, irreversible vision loss, and no existing treatment can restore retinal tissue that has been lost to this disease. Stem cell-based approaches offer the possibility of replacing damaged retinal cells, but the survival of transplanted cells can be unpredictable in diseased tissue.

Barzelay-Wollman’s $2.5 million award will support her laboratory’s work to understand why. Her research will focus on the transition zone — the irregular boundary between surviving retina and areas of complete atrophy, where some of the last viable retinal cells are found. By studying this critical region in human tissue, her team aims to identify the biological conditions that determine whether transplanted retinal cells survive and integrate or fail.

Using human donor tissue, stem cell-derived retinal cells and advanced molecular analyses, Barzelay-Wollman and her team will map the cellular, molecular and structural features of distinct retinal environments and test how transplanted cells respond within them. The findings could reveal which local conditions help or hinder transplanted-cell survival and whether those barriers can be modified, providing a foundation for more effective regenerative therapies for geographic atrophy. 

The project also includes a collaboration with Dr. Tsu-Chin “T-C.” Tsao, distinguished professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA, who will contribute engineering expertise to a component of the study involving precision robotics.

A physician-scientist, Barzelay-Wollman treats patients with retina diseases at the UCLA Doris Stein Eye Research Center and is a former clinical fellow in the Broad Stem Cell Research Center Training Program.