News release

March 2010

University research into blindness receives local boost

Geneticists at the University of Leeds are testing a new technique to identify the causes of inherited blindness, following a donation by a local charity.

An award by the West Riding Masonic Charity will help the research team, led by Dr Carmel Toomes to use the latest genetic technologies to isolate the faulty genes known to be responsible for a rare condition known as familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR).

The disease affects the normal development and growth of blood vessels in the eye and though the number of affected families is small, the research will help scientists study more common forms of blindness which are also caused by the growth of abnormal eye blood vessels.

Dr Carmel Toomes said that similar abnormalities are also seen in a condition affecting premature babies.

Dr Toomes said: "It is by studying the rare genetic disorders that molecular biologists begin to understand the processes that affect normal eye development so we can in the future decrease the risk of blindness through early detection."

In the longer term scientists hope this kind of research will change the way genes are identified and help find new treatments for diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, the main causes of blindness in the western world.

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