Giving Sight to the Blind

Listen to this amazing medical breakthrough! Researchers had three patients who were blind in one eye. They scraped adult stem cells from the corneas of their good eyes and applied them to simple contact lenses. After culturing the stem cells for ten days, the contacts were applied to each of the patients’ blind eye. In just two weeks the stem cells began attaching themselves to the patients’ damaged corneas. The results were remarkable. All three patients can now read—one well enough to past the vision test for a driver’s license. The treatment is simple and cheap. And it doesn’t rely on killing human embryos like embryonic stem cell research. It might be applied to other organs like skin which behaves very similar to corneas. Think what this could mean to burn victims.

[07/02/09]