NEI Research News

NEI support leading to gene therapy clinical trials for people with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) consisted of significant efforts by investigators in the intramural laboratories at the NEI.

Millions of light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors fill the delicate tissue in the eye known as the retina. These cells include rods that provide night vision and cones that detect color.

Two groups of investigators have reported independently on their initial observations from Phase I clinical trials of gene transfer for Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) caused by mutations in the RPE65 gene.

Nerve cells that normally are not light sensitive in the retinas of blind mice can respond to light when a green algae protein called channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) is inserted into the cell membranes according to a National Institutes of Health...

An experimental 'rescue' of retinas by treating eyes with certain stem cells has been shown to preserve visual function in mice that were genetically predisposed to degenerative diseases of the retina.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, in its report accompanying the fiscal year 1997 Appropriations Bill, has requested a report from the National Eye Institute (NEI).