The news coming out of the prestigious Moorfields Eye Hospital in London has been heartening for anyone suffering from vision problems. With an ageing population, that will include just about everybody over time. The radical use of retinal stem cells to cure macular degeneration and other irreversible eye diseases has shown promising results and this was recently reported in the world press and media to much acclaim and fanfare and rightly so.
It so happens that I was once referred to Moorfields (while I was living and teaching in London from 2002-2005) for possible eye surgery although I eventually opted for such treatment here at home in Australia. The Bionic eye is gaining in sophistication and effectiveness and has also undergone successful trials here and overseas.
Blindness is a scourge in under developed countries and here at home particularly impacts on Australia’s Aboriginal communities. Sometimes even cheap and easy procedures can save a person’s sight and anyone who has seen the Sir Fred Hollows foundation infomercials is aware of this.
Along with the rapid development of the bionic eye by several competing medical research teams around the world (most prominently in the US, the UK and Australia) there is tangible hope that blindness as we know it will be scaled back markedly if not banished altogether. Stem cell research promises to open up new vistas in all areas of medicine and the retinal stem cell trials are an important step along that path.
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