U.S. and Canada Embark on Project to Develop a Gene Therapy for Retinal Blindness

The goal of this project is to begin testing a new gene therapy in patients who are losing their vision due to retinal disease, by the end of five years,” said Dr. Tsilflidis, Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.  By blocking a process (apoptosis) that causes retinal cell death, thus blindness, the XIAP gene therapy protects the retinal cells.  The gene is delivered to the eye using a virus.

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