When the Baltimore Orioles’ Adam Jones makes a great catch — a feat the Gold Glove centerfielder accomplishes on a regular basis — he isn’t thinking about his retinas. But in the five seconds it takes a baseball to leave an opponent’s bat and reach Jones’ glove, his retinas are processing an enormous amount of real-time visual information — continual changes in the contrast, velocity and trajectory of the ball as it rockets out of the infield, reaches high into the stadium lights (or the sun) and descends into the outfield.
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Archive for the Retinitis pigmentosa Category
Every field of research has its “rock stars,” specialists so revered for their knowledge, expertise and experience, they’re famous in certain circles worldwide. And when it comes to retinal-disease research, the stars are invariably linked to the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which either funds or has funded their vision-saving work. So, after interviewing a handful of them recently, we’ve put together a few research-oriented playlists on our revamped YouTube page.
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Julie Anderson admits she’s stubborn. “It’s the German in me,” she says. “I don’t ever give in.” So when she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, or RP, a hereditary disease that progressively diminishes eyesight, the mother of three didn’t crawl into a hole. She joined FFB and, for more than a dozen years, has been its Minneapolis chapter’s president. And when she heard, in the mid 2000s, that the company Neurotech would be conducting a Foundation-funded clinical, or human, trial for a treatment of RP at the University of Minnesota, she was literally the first in line to be screened for approval. Continue Reading…
As the Foundation reported back in February, the Argus II retinal prosthesis, developed by Second Sight Medical Products, received marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
For those of us on the front lines of fighting blindness — whether we’re raising funds, conducting research or stand to personally benefit from the results — the device’s approval is one of the most exciting milestones in vision restoration ever achieved.
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I am always pleased to hear reports on human studies for retinal diseases. And such is the case with a research poster I just reviewed at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) annual meeting. It described a new clinical trial underway for a potentially life-changing gene therapy for people with autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (MERTK mutations) taking place at King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital in Saudi Arabia.
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A Foundation-funded research team at the University of Pennsylvania — in collaboration with scientists from Michigan State University, the University of Florida and the University of Miami — has found a remarkable way to restore function to fledgling cones, the retinal cells most critical to our daily lives. Drs. András Komáromy and Gutavo Aguirre injected a high dose of a protein called ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) into the eyes of older dogs with achromatopsia, a retinal disease that causes day blindness from cone dysfunction and degeneration. What happened next is extraordinary.
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My ophthalmologist’s voice was firm and direct. “You’re going blind.” Tough words for a 5-year-old to digest.
Years later — despite efforts to cure my retinal disease, first as a graduate student, then as a postdoctoral researcher focused on ocular pathology — I came to accept the truth that those words carried. I was slowly being forced to adapt to a world not designed for me, or for any visually impaired person. But the progressive nature of my disease, retinitis pigmentosa, meant that time was on my side. I had time to change how I do things, how I communicate, how I think.
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Researchers are developing a number of promising treatment approaches for blinding retinal diseases, which include: correcting genetic defects; replacing lost retinal cells with new ones; and implanting electronic chips, like the recently FDA-approved Argus II. But, sometimes, saving vision simply comes down to keeping retinal cells alive, or at least slowing their degeneration. Known as “neuroprotection,” this approach isn’t just for the retina — it has the potential to preserve and protect all kinds of neural cells, including brain tissue and cells of the central nervous system.
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“Translational research” is the mantra for many of the retinal scientists funded by the Foundation Fighting Blindness. In a nutshell, the phrase refers to the advancement of vision-saving therapies from laboratories into clinical trials and out to the people who need them.
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When it comes to restoring vision in people with retinal diseases, history isn’t made overnight. Treatments and technological advances have to, first, be tested in labs, and then in clinical, or human, trials. And how quickly they move through the process depends on how readily they’re funded, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. So, making a treatment or device available to the general public takes years, if not decades. Which is why we, at FFB, are so excited about last week’s announcement that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted market approval of the Argus II retinal prosthesis.
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Steve is highly respected for his expertise and tireless commitment to finding treatments and cures for vision-robbing retinal diseases. 
As the Foundation's senior science writer, Ben writes science and research articles for the Foundation’s website, newsletters and Eye on the Cure blog. 
As the Foundation's senior writer, Rich writes and edits content for all of the Foundation’s print and online publications, including its blog, Eye on the Cure. 