Local researchers at UC Santa Barbara are making great strides in treating eye disease through surgical stem cell implantation in the back of the eye. KEYT recently reported progress being made at the UC Santa Barbara Engineering Department for addressing macular degeneration. The retina lines the back of the eye and the macula is the central part of the retina, the area responsible for detailed central vision. Macular degeneration is a disease of the retinal pigment epithelial cells, which provide support to the associated retinal tissue they serve. With macular degeneration, these cells die off and the body has no way of replacing them. UCSB researchers are developing a stem cell treatment in which stem cells are surgically implanted under the retina. These implanted stem cells develop into new retinal pigment epithelial cells, providing critical support for the nerve cells in the retina responsible for receiving light focused to the back of the eye by the cornea (the job of LASIK is to reshape the cornea to focus the light onto the macula). This is a very exciting area of work as macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the United States today — and it is exciting that this extremely important work is being done here locally in Santa Barbara!