PORTLAND, Ore. — Doctors at OHSU’s Casey Eye Institute recently replaced defective DNA with normal DNA on a live patient.
It’s part of a clinical trial called Brilliance, which is designed to bring vision to people born with a genetic defect in the retina.
“There are so many people who’ve been told there’s nothing that can be done and they’ve come to terms with it,” said Dr. Andreas Lauer.
During the gene editing, an experimental medicine is injected into the eye of a patient. In simple terms, the defective DNA is replaced with normal DNA.
In the past, this kind of surgery required tissue to be taken out and then reintroduced.
“Ideally what we would like to do is to stop any further loss. We hope we can eventually get vision to improve and reverse vision loss,” explained Dr. Lauer.
He says this recent procedure could be a step towards more advances, “The ability to remove abnormal DNA and replace it with normal DNA has applications for many conditions.”
It’s something he never thought he’d be a part of, “When I was in training it was just theory and now here we are doing it.” The DNA fix is designed to be permanent.
OHSU is one of a handful of U-S hospitals involved in trials that could lead to making the procedure available to more patients.