B.C. gene therapy restores night vision eyesight

As an infant, Dominic Juillette was always looking for light. Article content

“When his father carried him past a lamp, he would turn his head toward it,” said his grandmother, Linda McInnis. She knew from the time he was a baby that something was different.

The Fort St. James youngster, now a 15-year-old Grade 11 honour roll student, has Leber congenital amaurosis, a rare, progressive genetic eye disorder that has affected his vision from birth. The disorder, which affects the retinas, is caused by genetic mutations in the RPE65 gene.

Without treatment, he would have eventually gone blind.

The journey to solve the puzzle took years, the dedication of his family, the commitment of three enterprising doctors in Vancouver, and a new $1.5 million optical coherence tomography microscope f