Eye on the Cure » wills eye institute http://www.blindness.org/blog Blog of the Foundation Fighting Blindness Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:07:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Another Promising Bionic Retina http://www.blindness.org/blog/index.php/another-promising-bionic-retina/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=another-promising-bionic-retina http://www.blindness.org/blog/index.php/another-promising-bionic-retina/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:20:44 +0000 EyeOnTheCure http://www.blindness.org/blog/?p=986 Video Included:
Video ScreenshotLast 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.

Earlier this week, I came across a short video clip from the BBC that does a nice job highlighting a promising bionic retina being developed by a German company called Retina Implant AG. As the video shows, their 1,500-pixel device has restored rudimentary vision in earlier stage clinical trials taking place across Europe and at Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia. What’s also exciting about their artificial retina is that it doesn’t need a video camera to capture images.

View the Video

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Dr. Jay Federman of Wills will be presenting Retina Implant AG’s artificial retina at our 2012 VISONS Conference, June 28 – July 1, in Minneapolis. Of course, scientists at VISIONS will also be presenting the latest research updates on gene therapies, stem cell treatments, pharmaceuticals and other approaches for saving and restoring vision.

By the way, Minneapolis is absolutely beautiful in the summer. And if you can’t make it to the Twin Cities in summer, there’s always the Maple Lake Ice Fishing Derby in February.

]]> http://www.blindness.org/blog/index.php/another-promising-bionic-retina/feed/ 2 ACT’s Stem Cell Clinical Trial Expanding to Bascom Palmer http://www.blindness.org/blog/index.php/acts-stem-cell-clinical-trial-expanding-to-bascom-palmer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=acts-stem-cell-clinical-trial-expanding-to-bascom-palmer http://www.blindness.org/blog/index.php/acts-stem-cell-clinical-trial-expanding-to-bascom-palmer/#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:08:36 +0000 Dr. Steve Rose http://www.blindness.org/blog/?p=901 Woman looking through microscopeI am pleased to report that Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) just received institutional review board approval to add Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, Florida, as a clinical trial site for its stem-cell-derived treatment for people with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Bascom Palmer has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the best ophthalmology hospital in the U.S. for the last eight years, so they are no doubt a valuable addition to the study.

ACT’s clinical trial of its treatment for dry AMD is also taking place at UCLA and Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia.

The clinical trial of the same treatment for Stargardt disease is underway at UCLA and Wills, as well as Grampian University Hospitals and Moorfields Eye Hospital in the U.K.

Earlier this year, ACT announced encouraging results for the first two trial participants treated, one with dry AMD and the other with Stargardt disease. There were no adverse events, and the cells provided modest vision improvement.

The expansion of these studies to additional sites and the treatment of more participants will provide more information about the treatment’s potential for saving vision. I look forward to reporting additional clinical trial results as they are made available.

If you haven’t done so already, make sure you read Dr. David Gamm’s guest blog post on his outstanding stem cell research and the enormous potential it has as both a treatment and a research tool.

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