Future is here. Human skin cells were manipulated to form stem cells, which then produced retinal cells that could sense light. All done in a dish!

The first step is coaxing skin cells to form pluripotent stem cells (called induced pluripotent stem cells or iPSCs), meaning they have the capacity to form any cell type in the body. In this case the iPSCs were manipulated to form retinal cells that had photoreceptors that were able to sense light in a dish. Regenerative medicine is making huge progress.