Innovative Clinical Trial for Blindness Treatment

NOVA’s professor Miguel Seabra, formerly at Imperial College London, played a key role in the innovative clinical trial underway in the UK, for blindness treatment. Miguel Seabra led a key part of the pre-clinical work previous to the identification of the gene causing genetic retinal disorder, known as Choroideraemia. This progressive retinal degeneration affects mainly men, generally diagnosed in childhood, leading to blindness in the 40ies.

The clinical trial took place in Oxford, with 12 patients undergoing surgical treatment to one eye. The procedure involves an ocular injection of the virus, genetically modified to transport the missing gene. The virus aims to infect the light-sensing cells that line the back of the eye. It is the first time these cells are targeted by gene therapy, enabling the treatment of other genetic causes of blindness. The results confirm degeneration has stopped as a result of this treatment, expected within 24 months.

Conducted by Professor Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at Oxford University, in collaboration with Professor Miguel Seabra, from Imperial College London and NOVA’s Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, this is a non-commercial trial financed by NHS UK and Wellcome Trust UK, supported by Oxford University and Imperial College London.

Miguel Seabra has a degree in Medicine from NOVA’s Faculdade de Ciências Médicas and a PhD from the University of Texas (1992). He was Professor and Director of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine of Imperial College London (2007) and Professor of Cell Biology and Biochemistry of NOVA’s Faculdade de Ciências Médicas where he is also the director, since 2009, of the Chronic Diseases Centre (CEDOC) aiming to promote collaboration between clinical and epidemiological research in chronic diseases and applied research in biomedical research.