Seeing The Light

For those who wish to recover their sight promising research is being done by the Universities of Bern, Switzerland and Gottingen, Germany. The process is called Optogenetic therapy and is expected to help those who have lost their sight due to some degenerative diseases of the eyes. Certain proteins are inserted into cells in the retina causing those cells to sense light. The effected cells then act in place of the light sensing cell that were destroyed by the disease process. This treatment has already been successful in returning sight to mice. It is not a cure for all blindness but it is certainly a great step forward in treating blindness due to degenerative diseases. There seems to be a long way to go before it will be ready for human use but the journey has at least begun.

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 02, 2015
Category: Science | Universities, Colleges, Private Schools and Academia | Eyes and Vision

Comments

My grandfather grew up tending mules on their farm, had no electricity or running water in the house, and road a buckboard into town for supplies.

We've come a very, very long way is an eye-blink of time.

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 10/02/15 at 11:41 PM

Boy, maybe Stephen King should write a novel about this! Oh, wait...

Posted by TheCannyScot in Atlanta, GA on 10/03/15 at 05:28 AM

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