<p>A new oral drug can improve vision in people with a specific form of blindness, researchers announced in July.</p><div class="vert-display-toggle collapsible relative flex flex-col items-center "><div class="vert-unit mt-4 mb-3 top-20"><div ad-type="mobile-desktop" class="ad-wrapper vert min-h-boombox flex items-start justify-center" data-ad-mapping="inline" data-ad-slot="Discover/inline-ad" id="div-inline-ad-0"></div></div><span aria-label="Advertisement" class="text-ad mt-1 text-[11px] uppercase">Advertisement</span></div><p>A team led by pediatric ophthalmologist Robert Koenekoop at McGill University gave the medication to 14 patients with Leber congenital amaurosis, an inherited disease that causes retinal degeneration leading to blindness. Ten of the patients, both children and adults, saw their visual field expand, and six experienced improved visual acuity, according to the team’s study, published in <em>The Lancet</em>.</p><p>“This is very exciting; we could possibly provide treatment for these disorders that until very recently were considered untreatable,” says Janine Mendola, a McGill neuroscientist involved in the study.</p><div data-embedid="9b6b7608-0101-4c26-8de9-6aad26a6d2b9" id="insticator-embed-temp"></div><p><em>[This article originally appeared in print as "Sight, Seen."] </em></p>

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March 2015

The March 2015 issue of Discover Magazine

Alzheimer's and the Aging Brain

New treatment improves vision in those with an inherited eye disease.

Health

New Drug Treats Congenital Blindness

Article

News

Connor Walters

Science

A new oral drug can improve vision in people with a specific form of blindness, researchers announced in July. A team led by pediatric ophthalmologist Robert Koenekoop at McGill University gave the medication to 14 patients with Leber congenital amaurosis, an inherited disease that causes retinal degeneration leading to blindness. Ten of the patients, both children and adults, saw their visual field expand, and six experienced improved visual acuity, according to the team’s study, published in The Lancet. “This is very exciting; we could possibly provide treatment for these disorders that until very recently were considered untreatable,” says Janine Mendola, a McGill neuroscientist involved in the study. [This article originally appeared in print as "Sight, Seen."]

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