Blindness News and Research

RSS

Three papers reveal structure and workings of G protein-coupled receptors

Three international teams of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California San Diego, University of Michigan and Stanford University, have published a trio of papers describing in unprecedented detail the structure and workings of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a large family of human proteins that are the target of one-third to one-half of modern drugs.

29 Sep 2011

Burundi makes significant progress against NTDs

In this "End the Neglect" blog post, Alan Fenwick, director of the Schistosomaisis Control Initiative and professor of Tropical Parasitology at Imperial College in London, examines Burundi's progress in combating neglected tropical diseases.

28 Sep 2011

JDRF, iCo Therapeutics collaborate for iCo-007 Phase 2 trial in DME

iCo Therapeutics Inc. today announced that the company has entered into a research collaboration agreement with JDRF, the worldwide leader for research to cure, treat, and prevent type 1 diabetes (T1D), to support the previously announced Phase 2 investigator sponsored clinical trial investigating iCo-007 in Diabetic Macular Edema.

26 Sep 2011

Positive results from Clermont's non-preserved latanoprost phase III trial on glaucoma

Clermont Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held ophthalmic-focused biopharmaceutical company, announced today positive results from a phase III trial of non-preserved latanoprost. In the study, non-preserved latanoprost was compared to Xalatan (latanoprost ophthalmic solution) 0.005%, in subjects diagnosed with open-angle glaucoma.

26 Sep 2011

Embryonic stem cell therapy for incurable Stargardt eye disease

...

26 Sep 2011

AGTC receives FFB grant to evaluate gene therapy treatment for X-linked Retinoschisis

Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation, a privately-held, clinical stage biotechnology company developing novel systems to deliver human therapeutics, announces that it has received a grant of $1.5 million from the Foundation Fighting Blindness to fund a pre-clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of a gene therapy treatment for X-linked Retinoschisis (XLRS), a genetic eye disease affecting over 35,000 patients in the US and Europe.

22 Sep 2011

ACT receives UK MHRA clearance for hESC-derived RPE cell trial for Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy

Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., a leader in the field of regenerative medicine, announced today that it has received clearance from the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to begin treating patients as part of a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy using retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) derived from human embryonic stem cells.

22 Sep 2011

New collaboration reinforces Sanofi's translational discovery platform for retinal diseases

The Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft), Germany's leading basic research organization, announced today that it has signed with Fovea Pharmaceuticals, the Ophthalmology Division of Sanofi, a research collaboration and license agreement to identify and develop innovative solutions for restoring vision in patients suffering from diseases affecting the retina.

16 Sep 2011

Lucentis receives Health Canada approval to treat vision loss from DME

Health Canada has approved Lucentis (ranibizumab) as a treatment for vision loss resulting from diabetic macular edema, one of the major causes of adult vision loss and an important complication of the growing epidemic of diabetes.

14 Sep 2011

NIH awards Rutgers and UMDNJ $23.2M grant to develop drugs against mustard gas

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a five-year $23.2 million grant to a group of investigators at Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School to continue their research aimed at developing drug products that could be used against chemical warfare agents from a terrorist attack.

14 Sep 2011

Survey highlights need for better diabetes treatment guidelines

A survey of federally funded diabetes prevention and control programs in 57 U.S. states and territories has highlighted the need for better diabetes treatment guidelines that are specifically adapted to different populations. Such guidelines do not currently exist.

14 Sep 2011

Longer looks: Unknowns in sports medicine; shackling pregnant prisoners

Medical experts say that multiple futile treatments is all too familiar and points to growing problems in sports medicine, a medical subspecialty that has been experiencing explosive growth. now researchers are questioning many of the procedures, including new ones that often have no rigorous studies to back them up. "Patients come in and say, 'I want the same thing that Tiger Woods had,' " said Dr. McDevitt, the sports medicine orthopedist in Maryland.

9 Sep 2011

InnoCentive, JDRF announce $100,000 Challenge to uncover solutions for insulin-dependent diabetes

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the worldwide leader for research to cure, treat, and prevent type 1 diabetes, and InnoCentive, Inc., the pioneer in open innovation and crowdsourcing, today announced a $100,000 Challenge calling for innovative ways to approach the discovery and development of a glucose-responsive insulin drug as a means to treat insulin-dependent diabetes.

9 Sep 2011

Scientists uncover new ways to stimulate pancreatic beta cell growth

One of the holy grails in diabetes research is to discover molecules that stimulate beta cell growth and to find drugs that target these molecules. Now, JDRF-funded researchers in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche, have done both, discovering not only a protein that regulates beta cell growth, but also a chemical compound that stimulates it.

7 Sep 2011

Amakem receives €18m in Series A round of funding

Amakem NV today announced it has raised €18m with a syndicate of leading life sciences investors to advance its ophthalmology drug development portfolio and progress its lead candidate, AMA0076 for glaucoma, to clinical proof of concept.

6 Sep 2011

Discovery in rare disease may shed light on common causes of blindness

In a rare eye disease, the retina degenerates because light-receiving cells fail to regenerate, research led by a student at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine shows.

2 Sep 2011

Contraceptive pill prevents loss of eye sight

Scientists at University College Cork (UCC) have shown that the active component (Norgestrel) of the contraceptive 'Mini Pill' prevents the loss of sight in mice that have degenerative eye conditions that normally lead to blindness.

2 Sep 2011

Insight into molecular basis of Enhanced S-Cone Syndrome

A new research report published in The FASEB Journal will help ophthalmologists and scientists better understand a rare genetic disease that causes increased susceptibility to blue light, night blindness, and decreased vision called Enhanced S-Cone Syndrome or Goldman-Favre Syndrome.

2 Sep 2011

Guatemalan Syphilis study in 1940’s violated ethical standards: US presidential commission report

The U.S. presidential commission has found that U.S. government researchers violated ethical standards by deliberately infecting Guatemalan prison inmates and mental patients with syphilis for an experiment in the 1940s. This research did not treat Guatemalan participants as human beings and failed to inform them they were taking part in research study, calling into question the bioethics behind the study design.

31 Aug 2011

Blurred vision impairs spatial cognition in fall-prone older adults

Among older adults, falls are a common problem. About one-third of those over age 65 fall once each year. Visual information helps us to coordinate our movements so that we can successfully navigate our surroundings. In fall-prone older adults, however, the ability to collect visual information is compromised, and this group is not adequately compensating for this effect.

31 Aug 2011