Injury to the cornea of the eye is common. The cornea is the transparent covering in front of the eye. Infections of the cornea, including bacterial and viral herpes infections, are also common. You are a leading expert in anterior eye diseases. You published research on stem cell treatment for corneal injury. When can corneal stem cells be used for corneal injury treatment? It's a very interesting question because corneal eye stem cells sometimes are deficient. Stem cells are deficient because it could be an eye burn, it could be an injury. It could also be a disease like an aniridia, where there is limbal stem cells deficiency. This is interesting to make a recovery of the cornea and to regain the transparency of the cornea. So, we work with these IPS-induced pluripotent stem cells. We culture stem cells and then apply stem cells to the cornea. So this is still ongoing research. But it's very interesting. Because if we can bring some stem cells onto the cornea, and if they can form a stem cell colony on the limbal niches, it could be very useful to get back to real transparency of the cornea. Many stem cell methods are being studied. Even a small cultured cornea is being researched. So there is a very wide field of cornea injury research. It is not completely applicable at this time. But I'm sure stem cells in eye injury will be developed further, and we work on that. Well, that's very important clearly, because stem cells are a hot topic. But it's important to apply stem cells in a scientifically transparent and research-based, science-based fashion.
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