The Lowy Medical Research Institute 4 articles published in JoVE Bioengineering Toxicity Screens in Human Retinal Organoids for Pharmaceutical Discovery Kevin Eade1,2, Sarah Giles1,2, Sarah Harkins-Perry1,2, Martin Friedlander1,2 1Lowy Medical Research Institute, 2The Scripps Research Institute Here we present a step-by-step protocol to generate mature human retinal organoids and utilize them in a photoreceptor toxicity assay to identify pharmaceutical candidates for the age-related retinal degenerative disease macular telangiectasia type 2 (MacTel). Immunology and Infection Assessing Retinal Microglial Phagocytic Function In Vivo Using a Flow Cytometry-based Assay Salome Murinello1, Stacey K. Moreno1, Matthew S. Macauley2, Susumu Sakimoto1, Peter D. Westenskow1,3, Martin Friedlander1 1Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 2Department of Chemical Physiology, The Scripps Research Institute, 3The Lowy Medical Research Institute Microglial phagocytosis is critical for the maintenance of tissue homeostasis and inadequate phagocytic function has been implicated in pathology. However, assessing microglia function in vivo is technically challenging. We have developed a simple but robust technique for precisely monitoring and quantifying the phagocytic potential of microglia in a physiological setting. Developmental Biology Efficient Derivation of Retinal Pigment Epithelium Cells from Stem Cells Peter Westenskow1,2, Zack Sedillo1,2, Ashley Barnett2, Martin Friedlander1,2 1Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 2Lowy Medical Research Institute Stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells may be used for multiple applications including cell-based therapies for retinal degeneration, disease modeling, and drug studies. Here we present a simple protocol for reproducibly deriving RPE from stem cells. Medicine Performing Subretinal Injections in Rodents to Deliver Retinal Pigment Epithelium Cells in Suspension Peter D. Westenskow1,2, Toshihide Kurihara1, Stephen Bravo1, Daniel Feitelberg1, Zack A. Sedillo2, Edith Aguilar1, Martin Friedlander1,2 1Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 2Lowy Medical Research Institute Here we present a community accepted protocol in multimedia format for subretinally injecting a bolus of RPE cells in rats and mice. This approach can be used for determining rescue potentials, safety profiles, and survival capacities of grafted RPE cells upon implantation in animal models of retinal degeneration.
