The trial showed that retinal pigment epithelium cell replacement strategies are safe and possibly effective in addressing retinal blindness. This trial replaced retinal pigment epithelium cells, which are lost in many blinding eye conditions – including dry age-related and myopic macular degeneration, and Stargardt’s macular dystrophy – with cells that had been derived from human embryonic stem cells. More recently, Schwartz led the first clinical trial in the United States to use human embryonic stem cell-derived cells in patients to treat eye disease. The development of ranibizumab and similar therapies changed the prognosis of wet macular degeneration from a 90 percent risk of legal blindness within two years of diagnosis to a 95 percent chance of stabilization of vision and 35 percent chance for significant improvement over two years. With wet macular degeneration, abnormal blood vessels grow under the retina. In dry macular degeneration, the center of the retina deteriorates. Age-related macular degeneration affects the retina, which lines the inner surface of the back of the eye, and is the leading cause of severe vision loss in people over the age of 65. Schwartz was a principal investigator in a number of early-stage clinical trials for retinal diseases, including the initial studies for ranibizumab (Lucentis) – an injectable drug that is now a common treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration. Schwartz leads clinical trials of novel cell therapies and drugs to treat blinding eye diseases. He aims to translate basic biological discoveries into new treatment strategies, and to develop and evaluate novel medical device technologies, imaging technologies, surgical equipment (including surgical robots) and drug delivery systems. Other musical choices include Bernstein’s Mass, Bach’s sixth Brandenburg Concerto, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, and Puccini’s opera La Rondine.Steven Schwartz, M.D., is an ophthalmologist whose primary research areas include early diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as macular degeneration, retinopathy of prematurity and diabetic eye disease. He reflects about the success of Wicked – and the “green girl inside us all”. He also talks us through the bass chords he has borrowed from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, and the two bars of Beethoven that he believes are the most moving music ever written. He has been influenced too by Carl Orff and the exuberant orchestration of Carmina Burana. The opening of Wicked, for instance, comes from Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C-sharp minor – listeners to this episode can hear both, and compare them. In fact, he admits, he steals ideas from the great composers “flagrantly”. In conversation with Michael Berkeley, Stephen Schwartz reveals how classical music gives him ideas for his most successful musical numbers. He’s received numerous awards – three Oscars, four Grammys – and he’s over from New York for the opening of his new musical, The Prince of Egypt, a stage version of the popular film. His musical Wicked, for which he wrote the words and music, has become something of a cult it opened on Broadway in 2003 and in the West End in 2006, and it’s been running both in New York and in London ever since. He wrote Godspell, Pippin, and The Baker’s Wife he’s written the lyrics for films such as Pocohontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Enchanted - and many others. Stephen Schwartz is a master of musicals.
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