A team of scientists at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center has created the first genetic research model for a microscopic part of the eye that when missing causes blindness. The research appears in a recent issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Scientists of the University of Granada (Spain) and the San Cecilio Teaching Hospital (Granada) have determined for the first time the causes for the blindness produced by corneal oedema and have identified the genes which cause it.

All three people who received gene therapy at the University of Florida to treat a rare, incurable form of blindness have regained some of their vision, according to a paper published online today in Human Gene Therapy.

A growing number of the world's children are mildly to severely nearsighted (myopic), with rates especially high among urbanized East Asians. In addition to coping with poor distance vision, children with severe myopia are more prone to visual impairment and later in life

Age-dependent macular degeneration (AMD) is the commonest cause of blindness in the western industrialised nations. Hereditary changes in the regulation of the immune system influence the risk of contracting AMD.

People suffering from a type of connective tissue disease characterized by inflammation of arteries in the head are three times more likely to experience blindness, new Geisinger research shows.

BiCOM Inc. in conjunction with The Lions Clubs of Staten Island held an educational/screening event to detect and prevent glaucoma using hand held tonometer Diaton which screens through the eyelid without use of anesthetic drops. The event was very successful, and the Lions Club members learned how to further their attempts to educate and screen the public in order to prevent blindness. Lions Club members are planning to add painless Diaton tonometry to their health screening events.

Preventable adverse events in hospitals occur 3 times more often among patients with communication problems, such as deafness, blindness, psychiatric disorders and multiple health issues or comorbidities, found researchers in this study of nearly 2400 patient records from 20 hospitals in Quebec.

Innovative prism glasses can significantly improve the vision and the daily lives of patients with hemianopia, a condition that blinds half the visual field in both eyes. The peripheral prism glasses, which were invented by Dr. Eli Peli, a Senior Scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute, were evaluated in the first community-based multi-center trial of such a device, which is published in the May issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

In a clinical trial at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, researchers from The University of Pennsylvania have used gene therapy to safely restore vision in three young adults with a rare form of congenital blindness. Although the patients have not achieved normal eyesight, the preliminary results set the stage for further studies of an innovative treatment for this and possibly other retinal diseases.

A new study provides more insight into cataracts, the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in the elderly, finding that small pieces of a perfectly normal protein become toxic during the aging process.

Two major eye diseases and leading causes of blindness—age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy—can be reversed or even prevented by drugs that activate a protein found in blood vessel cells, researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine and several other institutions have announced in a new study.