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Article History

Received: 20 April 2026

Accepted: 20 August 2026

First Online: 2 September 2026

Declarations

Ethics approval: This study complies with all applicable federal, state, and institutional regulations governing research involving animals and human-derived materials in the United States. Animal procedures were conducted in accordance with the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Southern California (Protocol Number: 21168). The use of de-identified human specimens was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was determined by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Southern California to not constitute human subjects research. De-identified human brain tissue was obtained from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Pathology Department from Alzheimer’s disease cadavers with prior written consent for autopsy. Human fetal RPE tissue was obtained with written consent at the originating clinical sites and procured as de-identified samples from a commercial supplier (Advanced Bioscience Resources) in accordance with the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Statement for the Use of Human Subjects in Ophthalmic and Vision Research.

Conflict of interests: JAM is an inventor of patents of related ELPs.