New Light For Macular Degeneration

Did you know that Macular Degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss?  In fact, it accounts for half of all vision impairment, affecting more than 10 million Americans, particularly those who are over 50 years old. Although TODAY, Macular Degeneration (AMD) is considered to be incurable, a few areas of research are giving hope to many patients who are suffering from this disease.

Macular Degeneration is caused by the deterioration of the central part of the retina, which is called the ‘macular.’  The macular is responsible for focusing vision and it controls our abilities to read, discern facial features, drive a car, and many other essential life-functions. 

Recently, there have been a few different areas of research that point to a possible ‘light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel’ for AMD sufferers:

STEM CELL WORK:  An engineered stem cell patch of retinal pigment epithelium cells derived from stem cells to treat people with sudden severe sight loss from wet AMD is being tested with some exciting results.

GENE THERAPY: A new gene therapy has been developed to successfully treat macular degeneration in canines.  Researchers are beginning to translate this into a human therapy. 

To learn more about Macular Degeneration, see below:

What is Macular Degeneration?

Research through Modeling