In a major breakthrough, doctors have developed a new technique to cure age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), the third leading cause of blindness around the world. An 86-year-old patient in the United Kingdom has regained sight in one eye after undergoing the procedure. This pioneering stem cell therapy was performed at a London hospital. Human embryonic [Read More]
Three patients in the United States have lost most of their ability to see after undergoing unregulated stem cell treatments. Stem cell surgery is often the last bastion of hope for people hoping for a restoration of sight. However, the treatments are risky when conducted at unsupervised clinics, such as a private one in Florida [Read More]
Stem cell researchers in Japan are using regenerative medicine techniques to find a cure for blindness. A paper was first published in 2006 describing a method to restore sight in mice using stem cells. Despite the initial excitement, more than a decade later, there has been no great progress. A 2015 trial in Japan was [Read More]
Researchers in Japan have made what may be a remarkable breakthrough in the treatment of macular degeneration. In a procedure that could make stem cell transplantation a reality, a man with age-related macular degeneration received iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells) derived from a donor’s skin cells. The multi-step procedure involved converting the donor iPSCs to [Read More]
Researchers at Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Medical Center are using stem cells obtained from human embryos to develop a pioneering technique that could help millions of people see again. Macular degeneration is the most frequent cause of blindness in people above the age of 60. It leads to the loss of sight in more people than [Read More]
In recent years, the number of clinics offering stem cell therapy has ballooned from 50 to more than 500. This boom in experimental and unproven therapies has refocused attention on whether current US guidelines are sufficient. When Dr. Thomas Albini, an ophthalmologist in Florida, met the third woman blinded by an experimental stem cell treatment [Read More]
Gene manipulation and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are at the cutting edge of regenerative medicine. Research is underway in using these cellular and genome-editing techniques to treat innumerable diseases afflicting human beings, but their use in repairing the damages of aging have ethical and cultural implications. However, there is a growing change in attitude [Read More]
In a breakthrough that scientists are calling remarkable, cataracts in the lens of the eye can now be cured by inducing stem cells to regenerate and grow a living lens to reverse blindness in just three months. Surgeons have succeeded in restoring sight in 12 infants born with congenital cataract (a clouded lens at birth). [Read More]
