$4.75 million grant to fund stem-cell work

Portland, OR-The Lincy Foundation has given the first installment of a 4-year, $4.75 million grant to the Oregon Retinal Degeneration Center at Oregon Health & Science (OHSU) Casey Eye Institute.

The grant will be used to develop stem-cell therapies to treat retinal degeneration, in particular age-related macular degeneration.

The grant will allow OHSU to be one of the only institutes in the country to test stem-cell therapies to prevent blindness from degenerative eye diseases. The grant will fund research from the initial stages through animal model testing and on to a phase I clinical trial to test the safety of the therapies in humans.

The Beverly Hills, CA-based Lincy Foundation is the primary philanthropic vehicle of billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian.