Blindness News and Research

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SG Austria, Nuvilex use live cell encapsulation technology and treat diabetes in animal model

Nuvilex, Inc. announced today their affiliate SG Austria and partners have successfully treated diabetes in an established, recognized animal model utilizing live encapsulated cells.

7 Dec 2011

Obstacles people with type 2 diabetes face that prevent them from getting ultimate treatment

Eli Lilly and Company today announced it is conducting the first major international, prospective observational study designed to understand the real-world obstacles that people with type 2 diabetes face that prevent them from reaching their ultimate treatment goals.

2 Dec 2011

JDRF supports FDA's draft guidance on artificial pancreas technology

The JDRF today said it is encouraged that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a draft guidance which appears to lay a foundation for accelerating the development and availability of artificial pancreas technology (AP) that will improve the lives of millions of Americans living with type 1 diabetes.

2 Dec 2011

Seizure drug slows spread of uveal melanoma

A drug commonly used to treat seizures appears to make eye tumors less likely to grow if they spread to other parts of the body, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

29 Nov 2011

Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala make progress against river blindness

Global health consultant Alanna Shaikh writes in this post on the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog about the elimination of river blindness, or onchoceriasis, from Colombia and progress made against the disease in Mexico and Guatemala.

29 Nov 2011

Bayer, Regeneron commence EYLEA Phase 3 clinical trial for wet AMD in China

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Bayer HealthCare today announced that they have initiated a Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of EYLEA (aflibercept) Injection in the neovascular form of age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) in China.

28 Nov 2011

FDA approves Medtronic's iPro2 Professional continuous glucose monitoring system

Medtronic, Inc. today announced the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of iPro2, a next generation Professional continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system and the latest in a series of recent diabetes technology approvals and innovations from the company.

From Medtronic 22 Nov 2011

Regeneron’s Eylea for treating age related macular degeneration gets FDA nod

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has received marketing approval for their eye drug - Eylea, an injection meant to treat a common cause of blindness in older people. Eylea can be used to treat “wet” age-related macular degeneration. The only other drug approved for the condition is Lucentis from Roche, which was approved in 2006.

21 Nov 2011

FDA approves EYLEA for treatment of wet Age-related Macular Degeneration

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved EYLEA (aflibercept) Injection, known in the scientific literature as VEGF Trap-Eye, for the treatment of patients with neovascular (wet) Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) at a recommended dose of 2 milligrams every four weeks for the first 12 weeks, followed by 2 mg every eight weeks.

19 Nov 2011

Regeneron receives FDA approval for Eylea to treat wet AMD

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Eylea (aflibercept) to treat patients with wet (neovascular) age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss and blindness in Americans ages 60 and older.

18 Nov 2011

New protein in the fruit fly eye may shed light on neurodegenerative diseases

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and collaborators have discovered a powerful new protein in the eye of the fruit fly that may shed light on blinding diseases and other sensory problems in humans.

18 Nov 2011

New insight into how the human brain learns and remembers

New research released today provides insight into one of neuroscience's most intriguing mysteries: how the human brain learns and remembers. These studies - involving topics as diverse as musical memory, "change blindness," and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) - illustrate the profound influence that specific changes in either the brain's structure, function, or both, can have on human behavior.

14 Nov 2011

Researchers uncover mechanism that governs cell specialization

Researchers at then Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have uncovered a mechanism that governs how cells become specialized during development.

10 Nov 2011

New cellular targets for devastating neurological disorder

In a paper published in the November 9 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and University of Washington describe in deeper detail the pathology of a devastating neurological disorder, but also reveal new cellular targets for possibly slowing its development.

10 Nov 2011

Clinical-grade viral vector can cure choroideremia

Researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center and Nationwide Children's Hospital have developed a viral vector designed to deliver a gene into the eyes of people born with an inherited, progressive form of blindness that affects mainly males.

3 Nov 2011

Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System successfully implanted in advanced Retinitis Pigmentosa patient

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., the world's leading developer of retinal prostheses for the blind, announced that the first ever commercial implantation of such a prosthesis was successfully completed on Saturday, October 29th in Pisa, Italy.

2 Nov 2011

NIH-funded project to discover biomarkers for type 2 diabetes

Arizona State University will lead a four-year, $5 million expanded initiative sponsored by the National Institutes of Health to discover proteins, or biomarkers, to help predict cardiovascular disease and to assess potential new treatments in people with type 2 diabetes.

2 Nov 2011

Non-invasive rtACS treatment can reduce partial blindness

It has long been thought that blindness after brain lesions is irreversible and that damage to the optic nerves leads to permanent impairments in everyday activities such as reading, driving, and spatial orientation. A new study published in Elsevier's Brain Stimulation suggests that treating such patients with low levels of non-invasive, repetitive, transorbital alternating current stimulation (rtACS) for 10 days significantly reduces visual impairment and markedly improves vision-related quality of life.

1 Nov 2011

Mayo Clinic, Oxford BioMedica collaborate to develop gene therapy for glaucoma

Oxford BioMedica plc, the leading gene-based biopharmaceutical company, today announces that it has entered into a research and development collaboration with Mayo Clinic, Rochester (USA) to develop a novel gene therapy for the treatment of chronic glaucoma.

31 Oct 2011

VitaYeast project to curb global malnutrition

Any way you slice it, bread that contains critical nutrients could help combat severe malnutrition in impoverished regions. That is the goal of a group of Johns Hopkins University undergraduate students who are using synthetic biology to enhance common yeast so that it yields beta carotene, the orange substance that gives carrots their color. When it's eaten, beta-carotene turns into vitamin A.

27 Oct 2011