A new stem cell treatment shows promise for people who have suffered a cornea injury, such as a chemical burn, infection, or other trauma. The cornea is the clear, outermost layer of the eye. People with cornea injuries often experience persistent pain and visual difficulties. These injuries can deplete the limbal epithelial cells, which can never regenerate. Without limbal stem cells, the surface of the eye can’t heal, and the permanently damaged surface can’t undergo a corneal transplant, the current standard of care for vision rehabilitation. The new innovative procedure—called cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell (CALEC) transplantation—consists of removing stem cells from a healthy eye with a biopsy, expanding them into a cellular tissue graft in a novel manufacturing process that takes two to three weeks, and then surgically transplanting the graft into the eye with a damaged cornea. “Our first trial in four patients showed that CALEC was safe and the treatment was pos...