The first human genome sequencing was accomplished after 13 painstaking years of research at the cost of $3 billion. But recent advances in sequencing technology holds promise of rapid increase in speed of sequencing at the rate of 6 billion nucleotide bases every 6 h at a cost below $1000.
Regenerative medicine company jCyte and the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine report that their investigational therapy for retinitis pigmentosa (RP) has demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile in an ongoing Phase I/II clinical trial. The cell-based approach taken is intended to rescue sick and dying…
Diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, cone-rod dystrophy and Stargardt disease cause scotomas, or blind spots, which often have devastating effects on central vision. They cause gaps in a person’s visual field, making it difficult to see words in a book, images on a computer monitor or TV and the features of someone’s face. A…
Neurons and glial cells in the retina contribute to neovascularization, or the formation of abnormal new blood vessels, in proliferative retinopathy, a condition that can lead to vision loss or blindness. We identified a mechanism by which suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) in neurons and glial cells prevents neovascularization. We found that Socs3 expression…
Before our brains build a visual image of our world, a chain of cells in our eyes must convert light into electrical signals that are processed in the brain. Photoreceptor cells in the retina represent the first link in this chain, and they are reactive to photons, or the fundamental particle of visible light. Retinitis pigmentosa causes these cells to…
Retinal detachment can occur as a result of either blunt trauma or as a side effect of a variety of ophthalmic diseases, including diabetic retinopathy, ocular tumors, and age-related macular degeneration. There is a significant increase in the immune system’s ‘alternative complement pathway’ following retinal detachment, researchers report, adding that this pathway facilitated early photoreceptor…
Paracentral acute middle maculopathy is a newly identified variant of acute macular neuroretinopathy that appears to result from retinal capillary ischemia, according to a retrospective observational case series. “This has been traditionally a very rare disease but now with advanced retinal imaging systems such as spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and infrared reflectance imaging…