vision loss news from FierceBioResearcher

Activating the Robo4 protein in mice helped them to develop working blood vessels and ward off the kind of common physical damage that leads to blindness. And the work may point to new therapies for Read more...

A team of British scientists say they can develop a stem cell therapy that will cure blindness caused by age-related macular degeneration within five years. They will use embryonic stem cells to repair damaged retinas. AMD is the leading cause of blindness in the developed world, with some 14 million suffering blindness in Europe as a result of the disease. The London Project to Cure AMD says it has obtained a £4 million donation to recruit leading researchers in the field. And …

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New research appearing in the Journal of Biology shows that even low doses of chemotherapy are killing brain cells and cancer drugs are more malignant to healthy cells than diseased cells. The study focused on the effects of cisplatin, cytarabine and carmustine on rats and found that healthy cells were still dying weeks after therapy. And the harsh therapy not only targeted the dividing cells that spread cancer, but normal cells that weren't dividing. The study at the University …

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Researchers were able to grow new cells from embryonic stem cells and used them to slow vision loss in rats with a genetic ailment comparable to macular degeneration. The scientists--Raymond D. Lund, who had been at the University of Utah's John A. Moran Eye Center in Salt Lake City, and Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology--say that their work demonstrates the utility of using new cells to substitute for the failing photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye. Failing photoreceptor …

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