New Atlas

Medical Audio available

Reprogramming retina cells found to reverse blindness in mice

Michael Irving August 15, 2018

In future, the Three Blind Mice might be able to avoid running into the farmer’s wife. In a study, scientists managed to restore vision in mice born with congenital blindness, using gene therapy to reprogram base retinal cells into functioning rod photoreceptors.

Researchers have restored vision in mice born blind by reprogramming Müller glial cells in the retina ...

Science Audio available

Researchers reveal how blue light exposure is damaging our eyes

Rich Haridy August 8, 2018

In today’s connected world we are increasingly having blue light beamed into our eyes at all times of day. A new study from the University of Toledo has homed in on exactly how blue light can damage our eyes and the researchers recommend avoiding looking at cell phones and tablets in the dark.

This is the first study to comprehensively reveal how blue light turns safe molecules in the ...

Medical

Rudimentary artificial retina made with tattoo pigment

Ben Coxworth May 2, 2018

Located on the back of the eye, the retina is a layer of nerve cells that convert incoming light to electrical signals – allowing us to see. Now, scientists have developed a rudimentary artificial retina, that could conceivably one day restore sight to the blind.

The device incorporates a thin sheet of gold studded with an array of microscopic pixels

Health & Wellbeing

Could diabetic blindness be prevented by glowing contact lenses?

Ben Coxworth April 24, 2018

In the more advanced stages of diabetes, the patient has a real risk of going blind. While there are treatments to help keep this from happening, they're invasive and often painful. There may be new hope, though, in the form of glowing contact lenses.

The lenses incorporate tiny vials of tritium

Medical

FDA approves another gene therapy, this time for treating inherited vision loss

Rich Haridy December 19, 2017

It's been a truly historic year for modern medicine with the FDA for the first time approving several gene therapies for public use. The latest approval, this time for treating a rare form of inherited vision loss, marks 2017 as a milestone year in the field of medicine.

The FDA has approved a gene therapy for treating a rare form of inherited vision loss

Medical

Landmark gene therapy for hereditary blindness closes in on FDA approval

Rich Haridy November 13, 2017

In August, the FDA approved the first gene therapy for general use in the United States. Now another gene therapy is on the cusp of approval, this time to treat a form of blindness. If approved, this therapy could pave the way for a whole host of treatments for genetically-based vision problems.

A breakthrough gene therapy for a rare form of hereditary blindness is close to FDA approval

Medical

Soft artificial retina might make for smoother eye implants

Nick Lavars May 5, 2017

Repairing people's sense of sight by way of retinal implants is a field of research that is seeing some rather promising advances. Now researchers say they have broken new ground in the area, which brings with it the prospect of more successful integration in the human body.

Restrepo-Schild and her team developed a two-layered artificial retina they say works much like the real ...

Biology

Blindness strikes three women after iffy stem-cell treatments

Michael Franco March 16, 2017

Stem cells have been shown to do everything from regrowing skull bones to healing damaged lung tissue. They've even restored vision in rabbits. But when three adult women tried an unproven stem-cell treatment in Florida to combat vision loss from macular degeneration, they all went blind.

Two of the women were able to see well enough to drive before the damaging procedure