A human stem cell based model for retinoblastoma

Presented by Laura Steenpass, Technical University Braunschweig Retinoblastoma is the most common eye cancer occurring in children under the age of five. It is caused by biallelic inactivation of the retinoblastoma gene RB1, presumably in cone precursor cells of the human retina. Efforts to model retinoblastoma in mouse are not satisfactory as the mutation of Rb1 alone is not sufficient for tumor formation. In order to analyze especially early stages of retinoblastoma we have created a human organoid-based model using the CRISPR/Cas9 system.