Penn Vets Identify Blindness Gene

Three decades of research yields results

Did You Know… 

that, after more than three decades of research, Penn veterinarians and vision-research scientists have identified a gene responsible for a blindness-inducing disease that afflicts dogs? In the process, the Penn scientists may have discovered clues about how retinal cells, and perhaps even neurons, can be regenerated. The research was conducted by Gustavo D. Aguirre, William A. Beltran, Agnes I. Berta, and Sem Genini of Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, along withKathleen Boesze-Battaglia of the Penn School of Dental Medicine. They collaborated with researchers from Cornell, the National Eye Institute, and Hungary’s Semmelweis University of Medicine.

To learn more about the Penn team’s research please see:http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/penn-researchers-find-new-twist-blindness-causing-disease-gene-0

To read the actual PLoS-ONE-published study please see:http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0024074