New Gene Therapy Restores New Dad’s Vision

Researchers at Duke restored a guy’s vision, just in time for him to see his newborn baby’s face.  

Born with a genetic eye disease, Tyler Wilfong knew from a young age he’d eventually lose his vision. “It progresses to where it’s pretty much blindness.” He said his peripheral and night vision were the first to start failing. “I had my license up until I was 23, and then my peripheral vision got too bad,” he explained. He relied on his wife even to walk through a store and was losing much of his independence.

Now some 30 years later, a new gene therapy restored his vision at the best time! He had one eye treated this spring and the other will be treated this fall and doctors are clear this won’t work for all patients suffering from vision loss. This particular therapy is only for those with this particular gene as the culprit.