For the First Time, Optogenetic Therapy Partially Restores Patient’s Vision

Director of the UPMC Eye Center Chair and Chair of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh Dr. José-Alain Sahel and collaborators reported the first-ever case of partial vision recovery in a blind patient after optogenetic therapy. The pioneering study, published in Nature Medicine, describes the first time a patient has achieved partial functional recovery in any neurodegenerative disease by using optogenetic tools.
The breakthrough achievement is a culmination of 13 years of collaboration between the teams of Dr. Sahel in Pittsburgh and Paris and Dr. Botond Roska in Basel, Switzerland.
(Read the paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01351-4)

Video by UPMC