John G. Flannery | Research UC Berkeley

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Success Treating Night Blindness in Dogs Could Lead to Human Gene Therapy

Scientists have successfully restored dim-light vision to dogs with an inherited disorder that causes night blindness, a major step toward using the same gene therapy to help people with similar vision problems.

With single gene insertion, blind mice regain sight

University of California, Berkeley, scientists inserted a gene for a green-light receptor into the eyes of blind mice and, a month later, they were navigating around obstacles as easily as mice with no vision problems. The researchers say that, within as little as three years, the gene therapy — delivered via an inactivated virus — could be tried in humans who’ve lost sight because of retinal degeneration, ideally giving them enough vision to move around and potentially restoring their ability to read or watch video.

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New therapy holds promise for restoring vision

A new genetic therapy developed by UC Berkeley scientists has not only helped blind mice regain light sensitivity sufficient to distinguish flashing from non-flashing lights, but also restored light response to the retinas of dogs, setting the stage for future clinical trials of the therapy in humans. The therapy involves inserting photoswitches into retinal cells that are normally ‘blind.’

Researchers develop easy and effective therapy to restore sight

Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed an easier and more effective method for inserting genes into eye cells that could greatly expand gene therapy to help restore sight to patients with blinding diseases ranging from inherited defects like retinitis pigmentosa to degenerative illnesses of old age, such as macular degeneration.

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March 19, 2019

Cal researchers use gene therapy to help blind mice see again

KGO TV

Juan Carlos Guerrero

Berkeley scientists have made a major breakthrough in the quest to cure blindness, restoring sight in mice with a relatively simple gene therapy treatment. With just one injection of a gene for a green-light receptor, the mice were navigating their environment with the same ease as sighted mice within a month. "We are trying to add a new function with gene therapy to another cell. This isn't trying to keep the photo receptors cells from dying, it is trying to make other cells light sensitive to take their place," says optometry and neurobiology professor John Flannery, one of the study's co-authors. The findings offer hope to roughly 170 million people around the world with age-related macular degeneration, as well as people suffering other types of blindness. The team hopes to begin human trials in the next three years. Link to video. For more on this, see our press release at Berkeley News. Stories on this topic have appeared in dozens of sources, including Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, Medgadget, and Bioengineer.org.

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