University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have grown multiple types of retina cells from two types of stem cells, they reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The team led by Dr. David Gamm, an ophthalmologist, and Jason Meyer, a research scientist, said the development could lead to cell therapies, grown from a patient’s skin, that repair damaged retinas.

The retina cells were grown from human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent cells, which are created from skin cells. Both types of stem cells were discovered or co-discovered by campus scientist James Thomson.

Read the On Campus blog: www.madison.com/wsj/blogs/oncampus