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Steve is highly respected for his expertise and tireless commitment to finding treatments and cures for vision-robbing retinal diseases.
Archive for the ‘News Commentary’ Category
Well, this is a first: the Foundation was mentioned, this week, in Rolling Stone magazine. Why? Because one of our fundraising dinner events, “Fashion Ball: Dining in the Dark,” brought together professionals from both the fashion and music industries at the The Plaza Hotel in New York City and raised more than $370,000.
Back in February, in a post noting Rare Disease Day, I mentioned how the Foundation’s research has applications that go beyond our purview, mainly because the retina is, in fact, neural tissue, or an extension of the brain. So some treatments we fund may someday help people with conditions unrelated to the eye.
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Last February, I blogged about the emergence of “bionic” or artificial retinas for restoring some vision in people who are blind from retinal diseases. In that post, I featured Second Sight’s vision-restoring device, the Argus II, which is now on
the market in Europe and, hopefully, soon in the United States.
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An Incremental but Important Step in Stem Cell Transplantation
A highly-magnified image of photoreceptors, also known as rods and cones, in the human retina.
So, here I am catching up on some journal reading, when Nature sends out an eblast touting new exciting advances in stem cell work, including a paper about the eye. Of course, I immediately jump to the site and find a research paper published online that reports on the modestly successful transplantation of precursor rod cells — cells that are more developed than stem cells but not quite mature rod cells — into mice with night blindness (congenital stationary night blindness). While vision improvement was not dramatic, the treated mice did see better in dim lighting; they were able to navigate a water maze in greatly reduced light much better than untreated mice. Read more
A Woman With Stargardt Disease Pursues the Miss USA Title
Video Included
What a difference a year makes. Last year, competing in the teen category of the Miss Florida USA pageant, Connor Boss stumbled on a set of stairs while making her way to the stage. Only family and friends knew the reason why. This year, the 18-year-old will compete in the same pageant as an adult. And thanks to ABC’s Good Morning America, she’ll do so as someone known to have Stargardt disease.
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