by Tom Hoglund July 2000 In the July issue of Nature Genetics, Foundation Fighting Blindness-supported researchers used gene replacement therapy to treat a rodent model of retinal degeneration. This is the first published study to show that gene replacement therapy can restore function to photoreceptor cells. These findings also demonstrate that gene replacement therapy can [Read More]
Category: Latest News
Researchers Restore Vision In an Animal Model of Childhood Blindness
By Tom Hoglund Information Officer, Foundation Fighting Blindness July 2000 In a ground breaking study published in the July issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers rapidly restored lost vision in a mouse model of Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) using oral doses of a chemical compound derived from vitamin A. LCA [Read More]
Artificial Retina Implanted in Humans
by Tom Hoglund Information Officer, Foundation Fighting Blindness For the first time ever, researchers from a company called Optobionics surgically implanted an artificial retina into three patients who are blind from retinitis pigmentosa. These highly-experimental prosthetic devices, made of silicon computer chips, are intended to restore ambulatory vision, thereby giving people the freedom to walk [Read More]
Foundation Researchers Restore Vision in Canine Model of Childhood Blindness
by Tom Hoglund In one of the single most important advances in the history of retinal degeneration research, a group of Foundation Fighting Blindness-supported scientists used gene therapy to restore vision in a canine model of severe childhood blindness, known clinically as Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA). This finding, published in the May issue of Nature [Read More]
Visually Impaired, Not Blind
People with age-related macular degeneration are pleased and relieved to see the word “blind” on its way out as a description of their visual condition. The word “blind” is becoming increasingly less associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), thanks in part to awareness efforts by MD Support and the conscientiousness of other leading organizations around [Read More]