Auckland University researchers believe they are just five to 10 years from growing entire human corneas in the laboratory to implant into patients' damaged eyes. Professor Charles McGhee, the head of the university's National Eye Centre, performed New Zealand's first laboratory-cultured stem cell operations on patients with damaged corneas in 2010, improving the sight of most of the affected eyes. The stem cells are typically taken from a patient's own healthy eye in a tiny biopsy - or less commonly from inside the lower lip - and are cultured in the laboratory. The resulting tissue is implanted into the damaged eye, in some cases with the addition of the transplantation of a donor cornea.To see more details visit,
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