Researchers Successfully Use Grown Cornea Cells To Cure Blindness
Researchers in Melbourne, Australia say that they’ve successfully grown and implanted cornea cells to cure the blindness in the eyes of animals. Now that they’ve made that monumental game change for blind people, they’re ready to start human trials.
The technique of growing and implanting cornea cells onto a blind eye came from researchers at Melbourne University and the Centre for Eye Research. It was meant as a replacement for transplants to fix blindness in humans (1/3 transplants fail).
What is the cornea? You probably know, but here’s a picture of the eye to help you out:
The cornea is that layer that covers the outside of the eye. It’s the layer that keeps the eye moisturized so your eye doesn’t turn into an old fruit left in the sun. Nearly every time you hear something wrong with someones eye, it probably has something to do with the cornea. Aging, damage and disease will lead to the cells in the cornea to deteriorate and lead to blindness. Basically, the cornea is the Captain America shield for your eyes. When someone breaks his shield, that opens up Cap to all the elements.
“We believe that our new treatment is better than a donated cornea and we eventually hope to use the patient’s own cells, reducing the risk of rejection,” explained research scientist Berkay Ozcelik about the breakthrough.
They’re also working on using this new medical technique for other things.
“We’ve actually developed a new class of material using novel chemical methods. The film could be used for other tissue engineering such as skin. The film could be used for other tissue engineering such as skin.” Mr Ozcelik said.
The Centre for Eye research is currently looking for venture capital to set up the funds for human trials. You’d have to be blind not to fund this project to cure blindness. No, scratch that, if you were blind, there’s no doubt you would throw your money at it.
(Via ABC.AU)
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