- We may soon be able to restore eyesight to the blind.
And we have to thank mice.
Mice and rats. Pests or pets?
Either way, these furry friends of ours
have helped us advance science to
the benefits of millions of people.
And I want to talk about three recent research projects
that used mice to test ways to cure and reverse blindness.
Now the first study comes to us from researches at
the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
And they were specifically studying diabetic retinopathy,
which is a condition in which the healthy blood vessels
in our eyes get replaced by fragile blood vessels
which fail to provide the nutrients
to the photoreceptive cells in our retinas.
That's what let's us see lights.
Now diabetic retinopathy is the most common eye disease
associated with diabetes, and is
the leading cause of blindness in American adults.
The researchers were looking for the
root cause of that fragile blood vessel formation.
Now they knew there was a growth factor called VEGF,
but they knew there must have been something else too,
because just blocking VEGF wasn't solving the problem.
They discovered the culprit, a protein called
angiopoietin-like 4, and by blocking both of those in mice,
they were able to halt those fragile blood vessels
from forming, keeping those eyes healthy longer.
This could be a huge benefit to millions of Americans.
Now, for study number two, we move on to
a group of Swiss researchers who are looking at
ways to reverse photoreceptive degeneration.
And they developed and opto-genetic approach,
a lab grown protein that they call opto-mGluR6.
Or optomglursix.
So what this protein does, is reverse that degeneration
in the photoreceptive cells, so that you can see again.
They tested it in blind mice. The mice couldn't see at all.
And then they were able to detect light,
eventually getting to the point where they could see
in moderate daylight conditions.
Without the aid of any additional tools or therapies.
This is a huge leap forward from previous treatments,
and it could mean a reverse from this type of blindness.
For the third one, we're gonna
go a little Marvel Universe here.
I'm talking Wolverine and healing factors,
and biomedical gel.
You see a team of researchers at the University of Toronto
developed this hydro gel to help
stem cells heal various types of tissue.
Stem cells are great at healing,
but they're also pretty fragile.
So the hydro gel acts like big old tough bodyguards
escorting the stem cells to their intended destination.
They tested this in blind mice, and the mice
were able to regain some of their eyesight.
Their eyes were actually repairing
themselves using the stem cells.
Then they tested it in other mice
that had suffered a stroke, and saw that the mice
were regaining some of their mobility.
This could be incredible. Imagine that we all
have Wolverine's healing factor
because we can use this approach.
These are the stories I find
really inspiring about the future.
It's why I'm so optimistic.
Because we have so many talented and intelligent
women and men working on real world problems,
finding solution that can help potentially
billions of people in the future.
All right, so I have a question for you guys.
What stories about the future fill you with optimism?
I want to know in the comments below.
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(mysterious music)