Well, here we go - from The Times 25 May 2021Scientists have...

Well, here we go - from The Times 25 May 2021

Scientists have reached a milestone in genetic medicine after sight was restored to a man blind for 40 years.An experimental therapy was used to improve the vision of the 58-year-old who was treated in Paris. He had been diagnosed as a teenager with retinitis pigmentosa, the most common form of inherited blindness, which affects about 23,000 people in Britain.The man, who has not been named, had been almost completely blind for about ten years. The first sign that the treatment worked came when he described being able to perceive the stripes of zebra crossings again.The therapy involved injecting pieces of genetic code, adapted from a type of photosensitive algae, into his eye. In effect, this restored the ability of his retina to recognise light. He also wore goggles fitted with a camera which captured images and transformed them into pulses of light that were directed at his genetically modified retina cells. This has given him a form of black-and-white vision. According to a study in the journal Nature Medicine he can identify a pale grey object the size of a tumbler glass on a white background from 60cm.The paper is the first peer-reviewed research to describe the successful clinical use of optogenetics – using light to control genetically modified nerve cells, an idea dating to the late 1970s.