Blindness as a result of severe visual impairment caused by eye diseases affects the quality of life of over 40 million people worldwide. Gene and stem cell therapies offer urgent new possibilities, particularly in the treatment of degenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration or hereditary diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa.

The promotion of in vitro models, i.e. research models based on cells that are not based on experiments on living organisms, is central to Animalfree Research. This is because they cannot only avoid animal suffering, but also deliver more reliable results. However, cultured cells require a culture medium to grow and be maintained. Unfortunately, in many cases fetal bovine serum (FBS) is still used for this purpose, the extraction of which is associated with extreme animal suffering. Worldwide, 1-2 million calves are cruelly killed to obtain the serum. The development of serum-free culture media for various cell cultures is therefore urgently needed. While serum-free options are already available for cell lines (modified laboratory cell cultures) and stem cells, these are not yet satisfactory for primary, post-mitotic cells (i.e. finally differentiated cells with high biological relevance isolated from an intact organ or tissue). This is one of the reasons why FBS is still widely used, especially in basic research.

We are supporting a project dedicated to the development of a serum-free culture medium for human primary ocular pigment epithelial cells for the development of innovative, animal-free therapies for eye diseases. The project is expected to have a major impact not only in the field of ophthalmology, but also beyond, as the novel serum-free medium may pave the way for the transfer to the cultivation of other types of primary post-mitotic cells and thus the replacement of FBS.