Eye

A new gene therapy treatment may be able to save the vision of patients with a blindness-causing genetic disease. DOA currently has no preventative or cure, but in tests in mice and human cells the team was able to slow progression of the disease.

Researchers in Australia are claiming an important breakthrough in glaucoma research, demonstrating how the degenerative condition can be treated using an innovative form of gene therapy that repairs damaged optic nerve cells.

In some forms of blindness, certain parts of the eye still work but damage to light-sensitive cells disrupts vision. Now, researchers have used gene therapy to bypass damaged cells and restore partial vision to mice that were completely blind.

A protein, previously found to be an effective blood-based biomarker of neurodegenerative diseases, has for the first time been detected in eye fluid. The discovery lays the foundation for eye tests to catch neurodegenerative diseases before symptoms appear.

Impressive new work has demonstrated a potential way to restore vision in those suffering from degenerative diseases of the retina. A single injection of nanoparticles was found to create a working artificial retina, restoring vision to blind rats.

Studies have seen physical activity slow age-related vision loss, but it hasn’t been clear how causal that relationship has been. New research is now offering the first evidence to show how exercise can directly slow, or prevent, macular degeneration.

Scientists at Columbia University have developed a potential new treatment for a major source of blindness in the form of eye drops that preserve retinal function, with tests on human subjects now in the works.

A new study has demonstrated how a form of deep red light therapy can help address age-related decline in vision. Hitting the retina with just the right wavelength of light was found to recharge its energy system in those over 40 years old.

The human eye is incredibly complex, so it's very hard to reverse engineer. Now researchers have unveiled the world’s first 3D artificial eye, which can not only outperform other devices but has the potential to see better than the real thing.

Scientists in the UK have been putting an AI to the test for diagnosing glaucoma, with the results of the trial indicating it can pick up on progression of the disease 18 months earlier than current methods.

The results of a first human trial testing a gene therapy for complete color blindness have been published. The data suggests the experimental gene therapy is safe, and potentially efficacious, opening the door to larger human trials in the future.

While scientists have successfully produced various "organ-on-a-chip" models of body parts, the eye is particularly challenging, as a tear film is regularly moved across its surface as we blink. That action has recently been replicated, in a new device.