A new cure for blindness in one eye, thanks to stem cells

Health news is often pretty scary and depressing, especially over the past few years. So it’s always nice when we can highlight research with the power to truly improve people’s lives.

A new study, published today in Science Advances, is in that category. It describes a new method of using a person’s own corneal stem cells to restore their vision after a catastrophic eye injury that couldn’t otherwise be treated. The paper details only four successful cases, but it’s a “stepping stone” toward a whole new world of cell therapies, the study’s principal investigator told me.

Nick Kharufeh, one of the trial participants, lost sight in his left eye after a fireworks accident in 2020. Today, he can see well enough to navigate his apartment and cross the street using only his injured eye—a once-unfathomable, but very positive, development in what he described to me as the “emotional rollercoaster” of his last three years.

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