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Phila. researchers bring sight to blind
Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | April 27, 2008 | Tom Avril

Posted on 04/27/2008 4:40:53 PM PDT by NittanyLion

The patient was blind. Maguire's hair-thin needle traveled through the "white" of his eye, all the way back to his badly scarred retina, where it would deliver billions of genetically modified viruses. Each virus carried a single gene: the recipe to produce a crucial enzyme that his eye was unable to make on its own.

Within weeks, beyond what anyone had predicted, the experiment worked. The young man and two other patients began to regain some vision.

The results, reported online today by the New England Journal of Medicine, represent a dramatic advance in the field known as gene therapy, a field marked by sparkling - yet so far largely unfulfilled - promise.

(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: blind; researchers; sight
Long article, but a pretty interesting read.
1 posted on 04/27/2008 4:40:55 PM PDT by NittanyLion
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To: NittanyLion

Amazing! Amazing!


2 posted on 04/27/2008 5:32:56 PM PDT by rawhide
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To: NittanyLion

Virus’ can be our friends.

Can’t wait until they use virus’ to rebuild genetically damaged cells and repair cell degradation (aging?).

Heck, you should even be able to target cancer cells with a programmed virus that “resets” the cancer cell.

I realize this is simplistic. I am not a doctor nor am I a scientist.


3 posted on 04/27/2008 5:35:56 PM PDT by dhs12345
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To: dhs12345
Virus’ can be our friends.

So can viruses!

4 posted on 04/27/2008 5:51:21 PM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Who's worried about the Bolsheviks? They couldn't be worse than the Tsar!)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

So can virii!


5 posted on 04/27/2008 8:12:12 PM PDT by Erasmus (Nihilism never amounted to anything.)
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