Patent ID: 7795025

Claim:
A method for producing an enriched population of human retinal pigment epithelium (“RPE”) cells, the method comprising: (a) providing a multilayer population of human embryonic stem (hES) cells; (b) culturing said multilayer population of hES cells under conditions that do not maintain the undifferentiated state of said hES cells for a sufficient time to allow for the appearance of putative human RPE cells, wherein said putative human RPE cells comprise brown pigment dispersed within their cytoplasm; (c) selecting one or more of said putative human RPE cells from the culture of step (b); and (d) culturing said one or more of said putative human RPE cells selected in step (c) to form a culture containing cells that are Pax6−, bestrophin+, CRALBP+, PEDF+, and express RPE65, and exhibit a characteristic cobblestone, polygonal, epithelial-like appearance and comprise brown pigment dispersed within their cytoplasm.