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Gene therapy trial shows promise for type of blindness

Research

The first clinical trial of a gene therapy for an inherited cause of progressive blindness called choroideremia has shown very promising initial results which have surpassed expectations of the Oxford University researchers leading the study.

The aim of the study was to get the gene therapy into the cells in the retina of the eye without causing damage. After six months, however, the patients actually showed improvements in their vision in dim light and two of the six were able to read more lines on the eye chart.

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