Foundation Fighting Blindness Relocates National Headquarters to Columbia, MD

Columbia, MD - December 6, 2010 - The Foundation Fighting Blindness (www.FightBlindness.org) announces it has relocated its headquarters to Columbia, Md. from Owings Mills, Md. As the world’s leading non-governmental source for retinal disease research funding, the Foundation has raised more than $400 million since being established in 1971. Employing 51 people locally, the nonprofit organization is now headquartered in a 20,400 square-foot commercial space on Columbia Gateway Drive.

“The relocation brings us closer to the National Eye Institute, the Food and Drug Administration and Capitol Hill, which are critical institutions in our advocacy for increased congressional funding of medical research, including continued federal support for all forms of stem cell research, and development of new vision-saving treatments,” said Foundation Fighting Blindness CEO Bill Schmidt.
The Foundation has eight regional offices and 50 volunteer-led chapters across the United States. In addition to funding research related to gene therapy, stem cell and pharmaceutical treatments, the Foundation provides information and support to people affected by vision-robbing diseases. VisionWalk (www.VisionWalk.org) and the Visionary Awards Dinner are the Foundation’s signature national events.

Launched by a passionate group of individuals and families who were driven to overcome vision-robbing retinal degenerative diseases, co-founder and notable businessman Gordon Gund still oversees the Foundation as Board of Directors Chairman.

The urgent mission of the Foundation Fighting Blindness is to drive the research that will provide preventions, treatments and cures for people affected by retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, Usher syndrome, and the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases. More than 10 million Americans are losing their sight to these conditions. Most recently, the Foundation is funding gene therapy clinical trials treating patients affected with Leber’s congenital amaurosis, a severe form of retinitis pigmentosa that causes blindness or substantial vision loss at birth. Results from the breakthrough study showed that gene therapy has restored significant vision in children and young adults who were previously blind. The advancement paves the way for using gene therapy to treat a wide variety of retinal degenerative diseases, proving that a cure is just around the corner.