News & Updates

Prof Raymond Wong and the Cellular Reprogramming Unit has been awarded the 2025 CERA Excellence in Research Award by the Centre for Eye Research Australia. The Cellular Reprogramming Unit is currently focused on advancing stem cell and gene therapy research in the eye to treat blindness. The Cellular Reprogramming Unit wishes to express its sincere gratitude to all colleagues and collaborators for their continuing support in advancing eye research.

Prof Raymond Wong was awarded funding support from the 2026 Retina Australia project grant from Retina Australia to advance development of a gene therapy to 'rejuvenate' the retina to combat aging effects using epigenetic reprogramming, which would potentially offer a novel treatment to prevent blindness caused by retinal degenerative diseases. Read the coverage from Insight news here .

Raymond Wong has been appointed a full professor by the University of Melbourne. Prof Wong is currently a Principal Investigator leading the Cellular Reprogramming Unit at Centre for Eye Research Australia and the Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology) at the University of Melbourne. Read the news here .

Prof Raymond Wong and his team have tested the use of CRISPR/Cas and engineered U1 technologies to reduce splicing defects of ABCA4 in retinal cells. This study demonstrate the potential of using RNA-targeting genetic technologies as a novel gene approach to treat Stargardt disease. This research involves a multi-disciplinary team of collaborators from Australia, Sweden, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and USA. Using RNA-targeting CRISPR-Cas13 and engineered U1 systems to target ABC

Prof Raymond Wong presented his gene therapy and cell reprogramming work with Mirugen Pty Ltd at the 2025 Started@Melbourne – a flagship event to showcase innovative Melbourne startups organised by the Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre. Started @ Melbourne 2025 organised by Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre [ Link ]. Read about Mirugen's research to develop a retinal gene therapy to treat blindness here .

A/Prof Raymond Wong and Mirugen Pty Ltd have secured $4.5 million investment from Brandon Capital, Tin Alley Ventures, and the University of Melbourne Genesis Pre-Seed Fund. This investment support the commercial development of a gene therapy using cell reprogramming to stimulate retina regeneration. This research would potentially offer a novel treatment to restore vision in patients suffering from a number of retinal degenerative diseases. Read more about Mirugen here: [ Li

A/Prof Raymond Wong has co-edited the book 'Advances in using stem cells to treat neural diseases' published by Springer Nature (in...

In collaboration with scientists at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (Singapore), the team has improved the workflow for production...

A/Prof Wong's research impact on gene therapy using cell reprogramming to regenerate the retina was highlighted by the Retina Australia...

A/Prof Wong discussed his work on developing a gene therapy to stimulate retinal regeneration in a radio interview on Radio 1RPH. Read...

A/Prof Raymond Wong provided expert opinion for a Cosmos news article on retinal gene therapy research to restore vision. Researchers...

In collaboration with scientists at the China Medical University (Taiwan), the team has demonstrated the use of stem cells and exosomes...

A/Prof Raymond Wong and Mirugen Pty Ltd were awarded $1.92 million funding support from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) CUREator+...

A/Prof Wong's research on gene therapy to regenerate the retina was featured on Channel 7 news. Researchers working on new injection that...

A/Prof Wong's research on gene therapy to regenerate the retina was featured in a Herald Sun news article. Vic researchers ramp up...