14 DAY TRIAL // This past May 5, specialists talking at this year's Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (or ARVO, which one can only assume fits better on business cards) announced the use of stem cells to make eye tissue.
According to EurekAlert, this breakthrough was documented in the case of two different studies and has high chances to really make a difference when it comes to treating loss of sight in human patients.
The same source details that, of these two studies, one boiled down to exposing stem cells to a growth factor that compelled them to become tissue whose makeup was not all that different from that of the developing eye.
Another research project focused on turning cells originating from the front of a patient's eye into nerve cells that sit at the back of said organ, after first converting them into stem cells.
It is believed that, in time, these two distinct investigations will make it possible for specialists to transplant certain cells into the eyes of individual's whose sight is not all that great and thus help them regain at least some visual acuity.
The 2014 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology is taking place this week in the city of Orlando, in Florida, US.