A University of Wisconsin–Madison team led by MERI RRF Daniel M. Albert Chair, Prof. Bikash Pattnaik, has developed a molecular therapy that restores vision in a mouse model of Leber congenital amaurosis type 16 (LCA16), …
Research News
Prof. Bikash Pattnaik’s research published in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy
Congratulations to MERI RRF Daniel M. Albert Chair, Prof. Bikash Pattnaik, for his recent publication in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy! Prof. Pattnaik’s paper, titled “Engineered tRNA reduces vision loss in a mouse model of …
McPherson ERI Fall 2025 InSights is out!
The latest issue of InSights features articles on a groundbreaking stem cell clinical trial, MERI’s Outreach accomplishments, and the establishment of the Alice R. McPherson Archives! Download the PDF Here
Groundbreaking Stem Cell Clinical Trial for Retinal Disease Treats Its First Patient
Using a stem cell-derived therapeutic developed over more than a decade in Dr. David Gamm’s lab at UW-Madison, BlueRock Therapeutics has treated the first patient in a new Phase 1/2a clinical trial aimed at a group of …
Researchers find the tipping point at which compensatory measures in a diseased retinal circuit shift from beneficial to detrimental
A recent study by the Hoon lab published in Current Biology has uncovered new modes of retinal circuit compensation and adaptation in response to impairments seen in congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB). CSNB is a retinal disease …
McPherson ERI research featured on Chancellor’s new Research Moves Us Forward webpage
We’re pleased that Chancellor Mnookin has chosen to highlight research from MERI Director David Gamm’s lab to launch her new webpage on transformative, federally funded work happening right now at UW-Madison. You can read about …
Researchers ‘seq’ and find a way to make pig retinal cells to advance eye treatments
In a new study published in Stem Cell Reports, the Gamm Lab partnered with researchers at the Morgridge Institute for Research to develop lab-grown pig retinal organoids. They found that pig-derived photoreceptors shared many similarities with …
New research in Nature Communications from the lab of MERI PI Raunak Sinha!
Congratulations to Raunak Sinha, the McPherson ERI’s David and Nancy Walsh Family Professor, for his group’s latest publication in Nature Communications! In their article, Saha et al. show that light adaptation, our visual system’s ability …
Gamm Lab Discoveries Culminate in FDA Approval of a Clinical Trial for the Treatment of Inherited Photoreceptor Diseases
BlueRock Therapeutics LP, a clinical stage cell therapy company and subsidiary of Bayer AG, today announced the clearance of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for OpCT-001, …
New MERI-funded research just published in Cell Reports
Congratulations to McPherson ERI members Ari Rosenberg and Lowell W. Thompson on their recent publication ‘Hierarchical computation of 3D motion across macaque areas MT and FST! This paper, which was published yesterday in Cell Reports, reveals that the macaque …