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Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed an easier and more effective method for inserting genes into eye cells that could greatly expand gene therapy to help restore sight to patients with blinding diseases ranging from inherited defects like retinitis pigmentosa to degenerative illnesses of old age, such as macular degeneration. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-easy-effective-therapy-sight-virus.html Ophthalmology Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:00:02 EST news290263940 Research led by a biology professor in the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has uncovered a method to produce retinal cells from regenerative human stem cells without the use of animal products, proteins or other foreign substances, which historically have limited the application of stem cells to treat disease and other human developmental disorders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-stem-cell-clinical-regenerative-human.html Medical research Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:05:28 EST news282927852 Researchers led by biomedical engineering Professor Shy Shoham of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology are testing the power of holography to artificially stimulate cells in the eye, with hopes of developing a new strategy for bionic vision restoration. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-reseachers-holographic-technique-bionic-vision.html Medical research Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:31:58 EST news281111495 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. There were early improvements in vision observed in the trials, but a key question about the long-term efficacy of gene therapy for curing the retinal degeneration in LCA has remained unanswered. Now, new research from the Scheie Eye Institute, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that gene therapy for LCA shows enduring improvement in vision but also advancing degeneration of affected retinal cells, both in LCA patients and animal models of the same condition. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-complexity-gene-therapy-congenital.html Genetics Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:11:51 EST news278075492 (Medical Xpress)—Blind mice can see again, after Oxford University researchers transplanted developing cells into their eyes and found they could re-form the entire light-sensitive layer of the retina.  http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-stem-cell-approach-successful-mice.html Ophthalmology Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:26:58 EST news276852389 (Medical Xpress)—Chemists and vision scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago have designed a light-sensitive molecule that can stimulate a neural response in cells of the retina and brain—a possible first step to overcoming degenerative eye diseases like age-related macular degeneration, or to quieting epileptic seizures. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-photo-switch-nerve-cells-eye-brain.html Medical research Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:22:21 EST news272128914 Eye experts and scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered specific cells in the eye which could lead to a new procedure to treat and cure blinding eye conditions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-cells-people-sight.html Ophthalmology Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:47:28 EST news271597638 By growing new retinal cells to replace those that have malfunctioned, scientists hope to one day create and fuse entire layers of fresh cells –– a synthetic patch akin to a contact lens –– as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration, the top cause of visual impairment among people over 60. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-envisioning-approaches-eye-disease-medicine.html Medical research Tue, 16 Oct 2012 13:24:49 EST news269612673 (Medical Xpress) -- Scientists have discovered a new avenue for the treatment of vision loss, one of the complications of Parkinson's disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-eyes-parkinson-disease.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Fri, 03 Aug 2012 08:43:54 EST news263202217 (Medical Xpress) -- The ancient Tibetan goji berry could help fight blindness caused by long-term diabetes according to studies conducted by University of Sydney researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-ancient-berry-diabetic.html Diabetes Tue, 05 Jun 2012 08:23:57 EST news258103391 Sloppy shipping of a donated human retina to an Indiana University researcher studying a leading cause of vision loss has inadvertently helped uncover a previously undetected mechanism causing the disease. The discovery has led researchers to urge review of how millions of dollars are spent investigating the cause of a type of age-related macular degeneration called choroidal neovascularization. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-sloppy-shipping-human-retina-iu.html Ophthalmology Fri, 04 May 2012 09:14:25 EST news255341268 A research team, led by John Guy, M.D., professor of ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, has pioneered a novel technological treatment for Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON), an inherited genetic defect that causes rapid, permanent, and bilateral loss of vision in people of all ages, but primarily males ages 20-40. Genetic mutations in the mitochondria (part of the cell that produces energy) cause the disorder. Currently, there is no cure for LHON. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-team-breakthrough-degenerative-vision-disorder.html Ophthalmology Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:06:00 EST news254419552 (Medical Xpress) -- For the first time, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have made early retina structures containing proliferating neuroretinal progenitor cells using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from human blood. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-scientists-eye-human-blood-derived-stem.html Ophthalmology Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:03:09 EST news250934581 (Medical Xpress) -- Researchers at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute and colleagues who successfully transplanted specialized retinal cells derived from human embryonic stem cells into the eyes of two legally blind patients report that the transplants appear safe and that both patients have experienced modest improvement in their vision. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-vision-modestly-patients-human-embryonic.html Medical research Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:19:27 EST news246604747 (Medical Xpress) -- By developing a large scale gene expression map for retinal cell types, FMI Neurobiologists have been able to identify the cells in the retina, where the genes causing retinal diseases specifically act. This narrows down the search for a better understanding of the diseases and opens up new avenues for therapeutic approaches. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-transcriptional-barcoding-retinal-cells-disease.html Neuroscience Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:49:37 EST news246520165 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. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-ohio-state-viral-vector-genetic.html Ophthalmology Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:46:26 EST news239449490 After more than three decades of research, University of Pennsylvania veterinarians and vision-research scientists, with associates at Cornell University, have identified a gene responsible for a blindness-inducing disease that afflicts dogs. In the process, the Penn scientists may have discovered clues about how retinal cells, and perhaps even neurons, can be regenerated. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-blindness-causing-disease-gene.html Genetics Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:52:27 EST news235846332 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. In the report, scientists found that the expression of genes responsible for the healthy renewal of rods and cones in the retina was reduced and that this problem originates in the photoreceptors themselves rather than in the adjacent retinal pigment epithelial layer as once thought. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-scientists-unravel-rare-genetic-disease.html Medical research Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:40:56 EST news234009584 Scientists from Schepens Eye Research Institute are the first to regenerate large areas of damaged retinas and improve visual function using IPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) derived from skin. The results of their study, which is published in PLoS ONE this month, hold great promise for future treatments and cures for diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy and other retinal diseases that affect millions worldwide. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-sections-retinas-regenerated-visual-function.html Medical research Mon, 16 May 2011 12:32:15 EST news224767914