Finding A Cure For Blindness

The next one that will hit clinics is a crispr treatment for a form of blindness called leber congenital amaurosis lca.

Finding a cure for blindness.

In december the fda approved the first gene therapy for an inherited disease a mutation in the gene rpe65 that causes a rare form of blindness. Color blindness is a type of color vision deficiency that makes it. The national eye institute nei suggest a number of simple steps that can be taken to ensure your eyes are as healthy as they can be. The word blindness however is commonly used as a relative term to signify visual impairment or low vision meaning that even with eyeglasses contact lenses medicine or surgery a person does not see well.

Right now they have nothing dr. Kiran musunuru another gene editing expert at the university of pennsylvania said the treatment seems likely to work based on tests in human tissue mice and monkeys. Even as crispr reaches milestones like this scientists continue to find new uses for it to treat genetic conditions. Having been approved by the fda in december the treatment will be the first of its kind to be trialed in.

While certain treatments help some people better perceive colors it s important to find ways of adapting to color blindness. It s not surprising that the first gene therapy that. Blindness is strictly defined as the state of being totally sightless in both eyes. Vision impairment can range from mild to sev.

Smoking has been associated with increased risks of developing cataracts optic nerve damage and. Discontinuing the medication causing your vision problem or treating the underlying eye disease may result in better color vision. In one day she had three calls from families seeking solutions to inherited blindness. For blind people however the future of medicine is one step closer to reality.

The test s effectiveness is measured by how many letters patients can read on an eye chart. It s a terrible disease she said. Gensight has shown that its treatment can reverse the devastating scourge of blindness due to lhon. Several clinical trials also show promise for treating various forms of retinal degeneration using stem cells.