A Gene to Cure Blindness | TIME

A Gene to Cure Blindness | TIME: "It took 15 years to get the right gene, to neutralize a virus that could carry it, and to prove — first in test tubes and then in live animals — that the procedure was safe enough for humans. Finally a young man named Robert Johnson got the first shot. A team of U.K. doctors announced earlier this month, that they put a needle through Johnson's eye, into his retina, to replace the faulty gene that had been blinding him for years.
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That injection made Johnson the first person ever to undergo gene therapy for an eye condition, although it may take months to determine if the procedure worked. A second patient received the same treatment shortly after Johnson, and 10 more will soon follow suit — names and dates all undisclosed — as part of a trial led by Robin Ali, a professor of human molecular genetics at University College London, and conducted at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London."