Glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, is a degenerative optic neuropathy for which current treatments slow the progression but do not cure the disease. While animal models are useful for studying underlying mechanisms of disease, there is a need for cell culture models of human glaucoma. With the advent of stem cell technology, building a glaucoma 'disease-in-a-dish' model using cells derived from human glaucoma patients is now viable. This review explores current progress and obstacles in generating retinal ganglion cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells, as well as the potential development of four different types of cell culture systems (single cell, co-culture, 3D retina and 3D optic nerve) that will be useful for interrogating cellular mechanisms, identifying therapeutic targets and screening drugs, with the future possibility of clinical translation.