Foundation Fighting Blindness

The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Susvimo, Genentech’s port delivery system (PDS) with ranibizumab, for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The PDS, a refillable capsule the size of a rice grain, provides continual release of ranibizumab, a protein that blocks the growth of vision-robbing, leaky blood vessels which are the hallmark of wet AMD. The PDS is...

October 22, 2021. Michael Young, PhD, from Harvard Medical School, joins host Ben Shaberman to talk about the latest in stem cell research for retinal diseases.

October 8, 2021. Silvia Sorensen, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Rochester in the Center for Community Health and Prevention, talks with host Ben Shaberman about mental health issues and management for people with low vision.

September 24, 2021. Dr. Naveed Shams, chief scientific officer at ProQR, discusses RNA therapies and ProQR's three clinical trials targeting: Leber congenital amaurosis (a CEP290 mutation), USH2A exon 13, and retinitis pigmentosa (RHO-P23H).

September 10, 2021. Stephen Daiger, PhD, Director of the Laboratory for Molecular Diagnosis of Inherited Eye Diseases at UT Houston, discusses the challenges and advancements in identifying the genetic mutations that cause retinal degenerative diseases.

August 27, 2021. Host Ben Shaberman provides an overview of the Foundation's no-cost genetic testing program for people in the U.S. with inherited retinal diseases.

August 13, 2021. Host Ben Shaberman talks with Bonnie Swenor, MPH, PhD, Director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, about her journey from the sudden, unexpected onset of vision loss to becoming a researcher and advocate for people with all disabilities.

July 30, 2021. Ben Shaberman interviews Drs. Philip Troyk and Frank Lane of the Illinois Institute of Technology about their clinical trial for the Intracortical Vision Prosthesis, a pioneering system for restoring vision to people who are completely blind.

July 16, 2021. Ben Shaberman chats with Morten Bonde, senior art director at Lego Group in Copenhagen and author of the book "Sentenced to Blindness – Now What?"

July 2, 2021. Jill Dolgin, the executive director of patient advocacy at AGTC, talks to Ben about her role in helping patients understand clinical research. They also discuss AGTC's current gene therapy clinical trials for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa and achromatopsia.

News | AGTC Reports Encouraging Results from Phase 1/2 Gene Therapy Clinical Trial for Achromatopsia by Foundation Fighting Blindness

June 18, 2021. Host Ben Shaberman interviews Dr. Daniel Chung, chief medical officer at SparingVision, which is developing a gene-agnostic therapy to preserve cone vision in people with retinitis pigmentosa, Usher syndrome, and related conditions. A clinical trial launch for the emerging treatment, known as SPVN06, is planned for late 2021 or early 2022.

May 28, 2021. Sheila Nirenberg, PhD, a professor at Cornell and founder at Bionic Sight talks with Ben Shaberman about her company's innovative optogenetic therapy which provides hope for vision restoration for people with advanced vision loss from retinal diseases. The approach has shown encouraging results in an early stage clinical trial.

May 14, 2021. In the inaugural Eye on the Cure podcast, host Ben Shaberman explains why the retina is such a great target for therapy development and also provides some updates from the clinical trial frontlines.

The company is planning the launch of a Phase 2/3 trial for its XLRP gene therapy

Precise and Sensitive Outcome Measures are Essential for Getting Vision Treatments through Clinical Trials

Gene-editing approaches are often better suited for autosomal dominant retinal diseases than gene replacement therapies

Cellular treatment provided significant improvements in visual acuity for subpopulation of patients with better vision

The gene-agnostic approach shows promise for people with late-stage RP and related diseases.

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