Blind Man Can Partially See Again after 40 Years Thanks to Hungarian Researcher Roska
A blind 58-year-old man has partially regained his vision thanks to the scientific breakthrough of Hungarian biomedical researcher Botond Roska. Roska and his research team have shown that optogenetic therapy can help individuals with retinitis pigmentosa partially regain their sight. This is a big step for gene therapy and could lead to technology that restores vision.
Nature Medicine reported on the findings of an international research team led by José-Alain Sahel and Botond Roska which included members from Institut de la Vision and Hôpital National des Quinze-Vingts, Paris, the University of Pittsburgh, the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), StreetLab, and GenSight Biologics.
Asthma-style inhaler with tiny nanobodies cleared Covid infection in hamsters and could lead to a faster and cheaper treatment for humans
Researchers looked at nanobodies, similar to monoclonal antibodies, which are laboratory-made proteins to fight off the virus, but at least four-times smaller
They selected a nanobody, super-charged it, and inserted it nasally into half a group of hamsters infected with COVID-19 while the rest were given a placebo
Hamsters given the treatment saw the number of infectious virus particles in lung tissue, nasal cavities and throats reduced by a million-fold
The placebo group also lost 16% of their body weight in one week, equivalent to a human losing 20 pounds, but the treatment group did not