Retinal Degeneration News and Research

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Retinal tissue may degenerate for a number of reasons. Among them are: artery or vein occlusion, diabetic retinopathy, R.L.F./R.O.P. or disease (usually hereditary). Retinitis pigmentosa, retinoschisis, lattic degeneration, and macular degeneration are characterized by progressive types of retinal degeneration.

Gene therapy to the inner retina prevents blindness in mouse model of CLN3 Batten disease

Gene therapy to the inner retina prevented blindness in a mouse model of the neuro-degenerative disorder CLN3 Batten disease.

10 Aug 2020

Researchers question the mechanism of retinitis pigmentosa

Researchers who made a knock-in mouse-model of the genetic disorder retinitis pigmentosa 59, or RP59, expected to see retinal degeneration and retinal thinning. As reported in the journal Cells, they surprisingly found none, calling into question the commonly accepted -- though never proved -- mechanism for RP59.

12 Jun 2020

Santen Pharmaceutical and jCyte conclude an exclusive licensing contract in Japan, Asia and Europe for the jCell therapy programme for retinitis pigmentosa

Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and jCyte Inc. announced the conclusion of an exclusive licensing contract covering the development, registration and commercialisation rights in Japan, Asia and Europe to jCell, a first-in-class investigational therapy, currently in clinical development for retinitis pigmentosa.

From Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. 9 Jun 2020

Nanoscope received NIH grant to advance ultrafast laser-based gene delivery to the retina

The Nanoscope team has developed Multi-Characteristic Opsins to sensitize cells toward low level of white light so that vision is improved at ambient room light.

28 May 2020

Research pinpoints potential new therapeutic target for retinal degeneration

Multi-disciplinary work led by researchers from Trinity College Dublin has pinpointed a potential new therapeutic target for treating retinal degeneration. The work has discovered that a protein (SARM1) involved in neuronal cell injury may also have a role in the progression of retinal degeneration.

20 Apr 2020

Reprogramming skin cells into photoreceptors to restore vision in mice

Researchers have discovered a technique for directly reprogramming skin cells into light-sensing rod photoreceptors used for vision.

15 Apr 2020

Researchers restore sight in mice by turning skin cells into light-sensing eye cells

Researchers have discovered a technique for directly reprogramming skin cells into light-sensing rod photoreceptors for vision.

15 Apr 2020

Preclinical data of Ocugen's OCU400 genetic modifier published in Nature Gene Therapy

Ocugen, Inc., a clinical-stage company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing transformative therapies to treat rare and underserved ophthalmic diseases, announced today the publication in Nature Gene Therapy of preclinical data of nuclear hormone receptor gene NR2E3 as a genetic modifier and therapeutic agent to treat multiple retinal degenerative diseases.

3 Mar 2020

Research reveals key role of a protein in rare Batten disease

Professor Stéphane Lefrançois, a researcher at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), is working on Batten disease, a neurodegenerative genetic disease that primarily affects children. His research focuses on the most common form of the disease - Batten CLN 3 - which is caused by mutations in the protein of the same name and for which there is still no cure.

28 Feb 2020

Scientists make important discovery with implications for people living with AMD

Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have made an important discovery with implications for those living with a common, debilitating eye disease (age-related macular degeneration, AMD) that can cause blindness.

20 Feb 2020

New gene therapy improves vision in blind mice

Mice born blind have shown significant improvement in vision after undergoing a new gene therapy developed by a team of Japanese scientists.

7 Feb 2020

UPMC implants first patient in the U.S. with new wireless retinal device

UPMC has implanted the first patient in the United States with a new wireless retinal device as part of a clinical trial aimed at restoring partial sight to patients with advanced age-related macular degeneration, a disease that leads to permanent blindness.

13 Jan 2020

New imaging methods provide unprecedented close-up view of cilia linked to blindness

A new study published today by researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and UT Health's McGovern Medical School in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals an unprecedented close-up view of cilia linked to blindness.

5 Nov 2019

Blue light and fruit flies: a warning for humans

A new study involving the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, published in the journal npj Aging and Mechanisms of Disease, shows that when flies are kept in darkness, or in white light from which the blue spectrum has been excluded, they live longer, compared to flies kept in alternating 12-hour shifts of blue LED light and darkness. The reason appears to be a speeded-up version of aging; the brain cells, retinal cells and climbing ability, all suffer a breakdown.

18 Oct 2019

Combination approach to slowing myopia in children shows promise

Combining two different treatment methods to slow the progression of myopia may deliver better results than either can achieve on their own.

14 Oct 2019

Johns Hopkins researchers develop new way to deliver sight-saving gene therapy to the retina

In experiments with rats, pigs and monkeys, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have developed a way to deliver sight-saving gene therapy to the retina.

From Johns Hopkins Medicine 30 Sep 2019

New study on gene modulation may help prevent blindness

Genes borrowed from a spider turned Peter Parker into Spiderman. If scientists can use archaea--tiny organisms similar to bacteria--as a source of useful genes for humans, might it help prevent blindness one day?

27 Sep 2019

Researchers reveal molecular cause for severe multi-organ disorder

Three unrelated families on three continents (from continental Portugal, the United States and Brazil), all with healthy ancestors, had children with a very rare disease.

18 Jul 2019

Revolutionary gene replacement surgery restores vision in patients with retinal degeneration

More than a year after becoming one of the first medical institutions nationally to complete a revolutionary gene replacement surgery to restore vision in patients with retinal degeneration, surgeons at the of The Vision Center at Children's Hospital Los Angeles have successfully completed the procedure on an additional 13 patients.

14 Jul 2019

Complement system shown to remove dead cells in retinitis pigmentosa, contradicting previous research

Researchers have found that the complement system seems to protect against retinal degeneration in retinitis pigmentosa.

18 Jun 2019