Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/14
By: Lung Pei-ning, Luke Sabatier and Evelyn Kao
Taipei, April 14 (CNA) A Taiwanese research team has developed a new technique for retinal
Chiou Shih-hwa.
cell transplantation that could one day result in more effective treatments for an incurable eye disease that can lead to blindness, the team’s leader said Monday.
Chiou Shih-hwa (邱士華), the director of the Division of Basic Research under Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s Department of Medical Research and Education, said the method, which is currently being tested in pigs, could offer a new approach to dealing with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
The disease affects more than 200,000 people in Taiwan and is the top cause of blindness among people aged 50 and above in the West. [FULL STORY]
Drug treatments involving injections into the eye have been used for years to stem the advance of the disease, Chiou said, but they have their limitations.
