News tagged with retinal degeneration


Engineering a photo-switch for nerve cells in the eye and brain

(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 ...

Medical research created Nov 14, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cells from skin create model of blinding eye disease

For the first time, Wisconsin researchers have taken skin from patients and, using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, turned them into a laboratory model for an inherited type of macular degeneration.

Genetics created Nov 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers elucidate cause of death of photoreceptor cells in retinitis pigmentosa

Research conducted at the Angiogenesis Laboratory at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, has for the first time, identified the mode of death of cone photoreceptor cells in an animal model of retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

Ophthalmology created Aug 20, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Engineer invents bionic eye to help the blind

(Medical Xpress)—For UCLA bioengineering professor Wentai Liu, more than two decades of visionary research burst into the headlines last month when the FDA approved what it called "the first bionic eye for the blind." ...

Ophthalmology created Mar 25, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Long-suspected cause of blindness from eye disease disproved

Vision scientists long have thought that lack of very long chain fatty acids in photoreceptor cells caused blindness in children with Stargardt type 3 retinal degeneration, an incurable eye disease. But researchers at the ...

Ophthalmology created Mar 11, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Research finds protein that prevents light-induced retinal degeneration

Research led by Minghao Jin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience at the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence, has found a protein that protects retinal photoreceptor ...

Neuroscience created Feb 12, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study of how eye cells become damaged could help prevent blindness

Light-sensing cells in the eye rely on their outer segment to convert light into neural signals that allow us to see. But because of its unique cylindrical shape, the outer segment is prone to breakage, which ...

Medical research created Jan 22, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New study sheds light on the complexity of gene therapy for congenital blindness

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 ...

Genetics created Jan 22, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Biologists achieve repair and read-through of stop mutations responsible for Usher syndrome

After years of basic research, scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are increasingly able to understand the mechanisms underlying the human Usher syndrome and are coming ever closer to ...

Genetics created Dec 04, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study suggests caution and further studies on drugs used to treat macular degeneration

Millions of people with "wet" macular degeneration are prescribed a class of medication known as anti-VEGF drugs. But now scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found that a drastic reduction of VEGF activity ...

Cancer created Oct 25, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New study represents major breakthrough in macular degeneration

University of Kentucky researchers, led by Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, have made an exciting finding in the "dry" form of age-related macular degeneration known as geographic atrophy (GA). GA is an untreatable condition that ...

Medical research created Aug 06, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Sloppy shipping of human retina leads researchers to discover new treatment path for eye disease

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. ...

Ophthalmology created May 04, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Grapes may help prevent age-related blindness

Can eating grapes slow or help prevent the onset of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a debilitating condition affecting millions of elderly people worldwide? Results from a new study published in Free Radical Biology an ...

Ophthalmology created Jan 12, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Researchers discover possible key to degenerative nerve diseases

(Medical Xpress) -- 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 ...

Neuroscience created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New twist in a blindness-causing disease gene found

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 ...

Genetics created Sep 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast