GenSight Biologics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of ophthalmic therapeutics using gene therapy, announced today the closing of a €32 million Series A financing.
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Vision scientists long have thought that lack of very long chain fatty acids in photoreceptor cells caused blindness in children with Stargardt type 3 retinal degeneration, an incurable eye disease. But researchers at the University of Utah's John A. Moran Eye Center have shown in a new study that lack of these fatty acids does not cause blindness, meaning that the search for the mechanism that robs sight from children with the disease must start anew.
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Doctors may one day treat some forms of blindness by altering the genetic program of the light-sensing cells of the eye, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
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Independent clinical trials, including one conducted at the Scheie Eye Institute at the Perelman School of Medicine, have reported safety and efficacy for Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a congenital form of blindness caused by mutations in a gene (RPE65) required for recycling vitamin A in the retina. Inherited retinal degenerative diseases were previously considered untreatable and incurable.
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Light-sensing cells in the eye rely on their outer segment to convert light into neural signals that allow us to see. But because of its unique cylindrical shape, the outer segment is prone to breakage, which can cause blindness in humans. A study published by Cell Press on January 22nd in the Biophysical Journal provides new insight into the mechanical properties that cause the outer segment to snap under pressure.
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Independent clinical trials, including one conducted at the Scheie Eye Institute at the Perelman School of Medicine, have reported safety and efficacy for Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a congenital form of blindness caused by mutations in a gene (RPE65) required for recycling vitamin A in the retina.
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Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with researchers at the Salk Institute in California, have found for the first time that a specific protein is essential not only for maintaining a healthy retina in the eye, but also may have implications for understanding and possibly treating other conditions in the immune, reproductive, vascular and nervous systems, as well as in various cancers.
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After years of basic research, scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are increasingly able to understand the mechanisms underlying the human Usher syndrome and are coming ever closer to finding a successful treatment approach. The scientists in the Usher research group of Professor Dr. Uwe Wolfrum are evaluating two different strategies. These involve either the repair of mutated genes or the deactivation of the genetic defects using agents.
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An experimental treatment for blindness, developed from a patient's skin cells, improved the vision of blind mice in a study conducted by Columbia ophthalmologists and stem cell researchers.
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Glaucoma is normally caused by increased pressure of aqueous humour fluid in the eye. A defining feature of this disease is destruction of a particular type of cells in the retina called retinal ganglion cells and excavation of the optic disc region.
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A Purdue University student's research project related to zebrafish eye development could lead to a better understanding of vision problems that affect billions of people worldwide.
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A team of University of California, Berkeley, scientists in collaboration with researchers at the University of Munich and University of Washington in Seattle has discovered a chemical that temporarily restores some vision to blind mice, and is working on an improved compound that may someday allow people with degenerative blindness to see again.
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Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) has awarded a grant of $110,000 to the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary to support research into the causes, treatment and prevention of blinding diseases. The research will be directed by Joan W. Miller, M.D., Chief of the Mass. Eye and Ear and Mass. General Hospital's Departments of Ophthalmology and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.
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Human-derived stem cells can spontaneously form the tissue that develops into the part of the eye that allows us to see, according to a study published by Cell Press in the 5th anniversary issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.
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The Foundation Fighting Blindness and Massachusetts Eye and Ear will host the Optogenetic Therapies for Vision workshop on Friday, June 1, from 8 a.m.-6 p.m., in Boston.
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University of Kentucky researchers, led by Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, have made a major breakthrough in the "dry" form of age-related macular degeneration known as geographic atrophy.
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A six-year collaboration between two faculty members of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has yielded new insight regarding the regulation of intraocular pressure (IOP) in glaucoma - an irreversible blinding disease that causes progressive visual impairment due to optic nerve damage and is the leading cause of blindness worldwide.
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A newly developed, genetically modified pig may hold the keys to the development of improved treatments and possibly even a cure for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), the most common inherited retinal disease in the United States.
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Three people have now have reported a dramatic improvement in vision after having gene therapy in both eyes after having lost their eyesight as children.
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Hitching a ride into the retina on nanoparticles called dendrimers offers a new way to treat age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. A collaborative research study among investigators at Wayne State University, the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins Medicine shows that steroids attached to the dendrimers targeted the damage-causing cells associated with neuroinflammation, leaving the rest of the eye unaffected and preserving vision.
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