Natalia Vergara, PhD, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, discusses research into human iPSC-derived retinal organoids which mimic the composition of a normal human retina and thus can be used as a human central nervous system model for disease and drug testing. Dr Vergara’s lab extracted human iPSCs from patients with familial Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (a rare autosomal dominant form of AD) and, from these, generated miniature human retinas. These retinas were found to have the same cellular composition and structure as a normal retina. After 100 days of differentiation, there was a drastic increase in amyloid deposition and tau phosphorylation. Dr Vergara’s lab developed a paradigm for drug screening by coupling this disease model with a technique to quantify amyloid plaques in whole retinal models. This paradigm can be used in longitudinal organoid studies, as well as to test drug candidates. This interview took place at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2022 in San Diego, CA.
