According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, Amir Ali Hamidieh, secretary of stem cells sciences and technologies development headquarter, explained about the achievements of this headquarter in the path three years during the third symposium of stem cells and regenerative medicine in ophthalmology, stating: the number of active centers in the area of stem cells has increased to 45 centers and universities in 2015-2018, which is indicative of a significant improvement in this regard.

He mentioned the flourishing of gene therapy in 2017 in the world, expressing: lack of activities in this area will lead to significant dependency in the future in Iran since treatment of many incurable diseases will not be possible without manipulation of cells through genetic engineering.

Secretary of stem cells technologies and sciences development headquarter added: such diseases must be treated by engineering of defective cells and solving their problems. For this, there are proper infrastructures in advanced countries. However, research is still not complete in our country in this field.

The third symposium of stem cells and regenerative medicine in ophthalmology was held by lectures on stem cells, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, perspective of cell therapy of eye diseases, cornea stem cells, limbus stem cells, current treatment substitutes of eye surface reconstruction, conjunctival tissue engineering, cell therapy for macular degeneration, clinical trials of retinal diseases, SVF in repair of orbitofacial lesions, application of iPSC in sight, gene therapy advancements in ophthalmology, and cell and regenerative therapy of retinoblastoma.

This symposium was held in Razi Conference hall by the support of Iran University of Medical Sciences and cooperation of stem cells technologies and sciences development headquarter.