The National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded grants to five multi-disciplinary teams to develop new disease models for a range of eye conditions. The program, which will award $30 million over 5 years, is part of the NEI Audacious Goals Initiative (AGI) for Regenerative Medicine. The AGI seeks to catalyze new treatments for blinding conditions like glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and other degenerative eye diseases. New models will enable researchers to test novel regenerative therapies, including gene- and cell-based therapies, and help transition them to the clinic. “Models that recapitulate human disease are essential to predicting the success of new therapies in humans. These audacious projects will be pivotal in our efforts to translate the latest science advances into new treatments for vision loss and blindness,” said NEI director Paul A. Sieving, MD, PhD. Click here to read the full story from the NEI.