For years I've been battling with a hereditary eye disease. My late mother and uncle had to deal with it and late in life it claimed their eyesight. So far there's no cure....but that could all be changing in the very near future.
It turns out a team of scientists at UC Berkeley have used gene therapy to help blind mice see again and some think it could within a very years be used to help cure blindness in humans.
The process involves injections of a gene that can reverse the way diseases like macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa work making the damaged photo-receptor cells in the retina of the eye .known as rods and cones sensitive to light once again.
If the results in the mice can be duplicated in humans it would have a huge effect for people around the world. According to research published in The Lancet about 190 million people worldwide have age related macular degeneration. That's 1 in 10 people over 55.
I am going to take this information to my eye doctor and ask him to sign me up for any tests using this technique. I'll let you know what he said.....