Degenerative Blindness Gene Found

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A number of different research groups have been making inroads into fixing age-related degenerative blindness in recent years. Betterhumans reports on the latest: "A variation in a single gene may cause half of all cases of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. ... Once we determine which genes are responsible for macular degeneration, we can screen the population and manipulate biological pathways to develop treatments." Moving from identification of a gene to understanding how that gene causes a degenerative condition can now be accomplished very rapidly - expect to hear more from this research group before the end of the year.

Link: http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2005-03-10-4