On Dec. 16, 2019, researchers at the National Eye Institute launched a clinical trial to test the safety of a novel patient-specific stem cell-based therapy to treat geographic atrophy, the advanced ﾓdryﾔ form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss among people age 65 and older. The protocol is the first clinical trial in the U.S. to use replacement tissues from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells.