Masayo Takahashi M.D., Ph.D. is Project Leader of the Laboratory for Retinal Regeneration Research at RIKEN. She received her M.D. from Kyoto University in 1986, and her Ph.D. in Medicine at the same institution in 1992. After serving as an assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology, Kyoto University Hospital, she moved to the Salk Institute in 1995, where she first learned of the potential of stem cells as a tool for retinal therapy. She returned to the same hospital in 1997, and since 2001 has served as an associate professor at the Translational Research Center. She joined RIKEN as a team leader of the retinal regeneration research team in 2006. Her team started Pilot clinical study of autologous iPS cell-derived RPE cell sheets for exudative aged-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 2013. The first RPE cell sheet graft transplanted in Sep. 2014. Her clinical specialty is retinal disease—macular diseases and retinal hereditary diseases in particular. Her aim is to gain a better understanding of these diseases at a fundamental level and develop retinal regeneration therapies.