The XO Directory

A recent experiment showed that gene therapy may improve vision in nearly blind people. This is a major advance for the experimental technique as this is the first time scientists used the gene therapy to improve the sight of people with a rare form of blindness.

"It's a phenomenal breakthrough," said Stephen Rose, chief research officer of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which helped pay for one study done at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

If successful in larger numbers, experts said, the technique has the potential to reverse blindness from other kinds of inherited eye diseases.

"I think this is incredibly exciting," said Dr. Jean Bennett, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania and a leader of the Philadelphia study. "It's the beginning of a whole new phase of studies."

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