Research in regeneration is motivated by the goals of attaining a fundamental description of the plasticity of the retina, such as its role in health and disease as well as understanding the retina’s endogenous potentials for prevention, compensation and regeneration in neurodegenerative and age-related diseases. Although fundamentally driven by the quest for knowledge, the ensuing research is performed at the edge of what is feasible in regenerative medicine and hence drives the development of novel therapeutic approaches in many areas. We propose that by studying regeneration we might glean novel knowledge towards the development of defined strategies for cell neuroprotection, replacement, repair, reprogramming and engineering from the regenerative programs.The ultimate goal is to make the research also available to the human retina, where loss of neurons frequently leads to permanent functional impairment.
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