Doctors inject lab-grown genes into boy's eyes to treat blindness

On the morning of March 20, eye surgeon Jason Comander injected viruses carrying lab-grown genes into the eyes of a boy whose vision had been gradually disappearing.

If all goes as planned, the 13-year-old patient — who lives with an inherited genetic defect that causes blindness — will experience an improvement in eyesight in about a month.

After a series of tests, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this gene-therapy treatment, called Luxturna, in December 2017. 

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Three months later, the procedure Comander performed at Massachusetts Eye and Ear served as the first time an FDA-approved gene therapy was used on a person living with an inherited, and incurable, genetic disease. There are no other effective treatments for this specific retinal disease.  Read more...

More about Science, Health, Genes, Blindness, and Genetic Mutation

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