University of Nebraska Medical Center officials say researchers there have devised a new way to create stem cells that could cure several conditions causing blindness.

A team led by ophthalmology and visual sciences professor Iqbal Ahmad has devised a way to turn adult limbal stem cells from the cornea into cells similar to powerfully regenerative embryonic stem cells in animals.

The university says the new cells can generate retinal progenitor cells that could potentially cure conditions such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration.

The work builds off that of Drs. John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka, who won this year’s Nobel Prize in science for their discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed into immature cells that can be turned into all tissues of the body.