The Need To See

An NYT Op-Doc based on the audio diary writer and theologian John Hull kept after going blind:

New research offers a glimpse at how we might someday cure blindness. Printed eye cells might be the answer:

Researchers at the University of Cambridge used a standard ink-jet printer to form layers of two types of cells taken from the retinas of rats, and showed that the process did not compromise the cells’ health or ability to survive and grow in culture. Ink-jet printing has been used to deposit cells before, but this is the first time cells from an adult animal’s central nervous system have been printed. The group hopes to develop the technology into a tool for generating new tissues that can be grown outside the eye and implanted in patients with retinal damage. Alternatively, the technique could potentially be used to insert cells directly into damaged retinas during ocular surgery, says Keith Martin, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Cambridge, who led the research.

Gene therapy also shows potential:

A team of surgeons in Oxford have used a pioneering new form of gene therapy to stop six of their patients going blind--and it’s hoped the technique could be used to treat blindness more generally. The patients all suffer from a genetic condition known as choroideremia, which causes the light-detecting cells at the back of the eye to slowly die. Patients with the condition initially struggle to see in low-light conditions, but their sight gradually declines until most sufferers lose their eyesight completely by the time they reach middle age. Worst of all, there’s no treatment. Prof Robert MacLaren and his team, however, have been experimenting with a new technique which sees them inject functioning copies of the CHM gene—known to be faulty in these patients—directly into the retina.