Carlsbad, CA (PRWEB) February 28, 2015 A study out of the University of Oxford has developed a promising new gene therapy procedure for the treatment of a hereditary ocular condition that leads to progressive blindness in patients. Authored by Dr. Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and published in the Lancet Medical Journal on January 16, 2014, the study treated six patients suffering from choroideremia, a rare genetic disorder that mostly affects men and leads to the degeneration of the choroid and retina, eventually causing blindness. Night blindness and loss of peripheral vision are the most common symptoms of choroideremia. For the study, researchers injected the subjects with healthy genetic material in an attempt to repair the damaged portions of the patients own gene, halting the onset of blindness. Developing technologies and gene therapy are the future of ophthalmology, said Carlsbad LASIK surgeon Dr. Michael Tracy. In the past, there was little that could be done for certain patients facing blindness due to genetic and degenerative conditions. Gene therapy can lead to treatments that can stop the onset of blindness in certain patients before its too late. For the Oxford study, researchers used virus particles to … Continue reading →