Two patients with severe wet AMD, implanted with a specially-engineered retinal pigment epithelium cells patch, derived from stem cells, have regained their reading vision in a ground-breaking clinical study at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

The study investigated whether the diseased cells at the back of the patients’ affected eye could be replenished using the stem cell-based patch. The patients were monitored for 12 months and went from not being able to read at all to reading with normal reading glasses.

The study, published in Nature Biotech, is a major milestone for the London Project to Cure Blindness, a partnership between Professor Pete Coffey from University College London and Professor Lyndon da Cruz, a Moorfields retinal surgeon.