“…However, in the past 2–3 decades, many areas of experimental therapy have arisen and continue to expand significantly to prevent PR degeneration or restore visual function. These include: 1) neuroprotective therapy with direct application of various survival-promoting factors (Abed et al, 2015; Faktorovich et al, 1990; LaVail et al, 1992; Wen et al, 2012), 2) gene-based therapy of recessively and dominantly inherited RDs, as well as viral vector delivery vehicles (Acland et al, 2001; Bennett et al, 1996; Dalkara et al, 2016; Dalkara and Sahel, 2014; Farrar et al, 2012; Laemmli, 1970; Lau et al, 2000; Lewin et al, 1998; Thompson et al, 2015; Trapani et al, 2015; Yang et al, 2015), 3) nanoparticles that act as antioxidants and biodegradable microspheres as non-viral delivery vectors for drug, gene and trophic factor delivery (Adijanto and Naash, 2015; Fernandez-Sanchez et al, 2017; Trapani et al, 2014; Wong et al, 2015; Zarbin et al, 2013; Zulliger et al, 2015), 4) transplantation and cell-based therapy with the use of retinal, RPE and stem cells (Aramant and Seiler, 2002; Li and Turner, 1988; Seiler et al, 2017; Thompson et al, 2015; Yang et al, 2015; Zarbin, 2016), 5) the development of visual prostheses using silicon chip technology (da Cruz et al, 2016; Duncan et al, 2017; Marc et al, 2014; Stingl and Zrenner, 2013), and 6) the field of optogenetics (Dalkara and Sahel, 2014; Duebel et al, 2015; Marc et al, 2014; Zarbin et al, 2013). The need for animal models has increased concomitantly with this research.…”