Blindness

Blindness affects millions of people worldwide. Some blinding diseases, including most inherited retinal diseases and geographic atrophy, leave much of the retina intact, but no longer light sensitive.

IOB’s optogenetic approaches for restoring vision sensitize blind retinas to light and have the potential to restore some degree of vision to blind patients. The first therapies using this technology are showing positive clinical results, including technologies developed by IOB researchers. IOB’s newest approach to this kind of therapy targets cone cells and has the potential to restore high-acuity vision to blind patients.

IOB researchers have pioneered a novel therapeutic approach to restore high-resolution vision in blind patients.

Publications

Engineering infrared light detection in blind human retina using ultrasensitive human TRPV1 channels

Trends Biotechnol., 2025

Morgan Chevalier, Firas Fadel, Tímea Májer, Dániel Péter Magda, Lili Gerendás, Ferenc Kilin, Zoltán Zsolt Nagy, Arnold Szabó, Botond Roska, Guilherme Testa-Silva

High-efficiency base editing in the retina in primates and human tissues

Nature Medicine, 2025

Alissa Muller, Jack Sullivan, Wibke Schwarzer, Mantian Wang, Cindy Park-Windhol, Pascal W Hasler, Lucas Janeschitz-Kriegl, Mert Duman, Beryll Klingler, Jane Matsell, Simon Manuel Hostettler, Patricia Galliker, Yanyan Hou, Pierre Balmer, Tamás Virág, Luis Alberto Barrera, Lauren Young, Quan Xu, Dániel Péter Magda, Ferenc Kilin, Arogya Khadka, Pierre-Henri Moreau, Lyne Fellmann, Thierry Azoulay, Mathieu Quinodoz, Duygu Karademir, Juna Leppert, Alex Fratzl, Georg Kosche, Ruchi Sharma, Jair Montford, Marco Cattaneo, Mikaël Croyal, Therese Cronin, Simone Picelli, Alice Grison, Cameron S Cowan, Ákos Kusnyerik, Philipp Anders, Magdalena Renner, Zoltán Zsolt Nagy, Arnold Szabó, Kapil Bharti, Carlo Rivolta, Hendrik P N Scholl, David Bryson, Giuseppe Ciaramella, Botond Roska, Bence György