The National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a five-year, $3.6 million grant to the UC Davis Department of Ophthalmology to explore a new way to treat vision loss using gene therapy.

The UC Davis team is studying a less invasive way of delivering gene therapy to the eye: injecting the gene therapy into the suprachoroidal space, a tiny layer between the white of the eye and the blood vessels that feed the retina. The researchers will study the treatment method on non-human primates such as rhesus monkeys, which have eyes that are similar to humans. The work involves a collaboration between the UC Davis School of Medicine, the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the California National Primate Research Center.

“If we can make gene delivery safer

See Full Page