The Cure ADOA Foundation, a Dutch foundation that is committed to patients with the rare eye disease ADOA(-plus), has donated one hundred thousand US dollars to Stanford Medicine in California. This amount is intended as a contribution to a large-scale study that focuses on the regrowth of optic nerve cells.
In ADOA patients, damage to the optic nerve is the main cause of vision loss. This is because optic nerve cells die. With the help of stem cells, new optic nerve cells can be created. Stanford Medicine is investigating how it is possible to make these new optic nerve cells connect to both the retina and the brain.
The Californian study is led by two professors. Marius Wernig is professor of pathology and Jeffrey Goldberg is professor of ophthalmology and chairman of the Byers Eye Institute. This institute is known worldwide for its groundbreaking research in the field of ophthalmology.
The Cure ADOA Foundation has been in contact with the two researchers since 2022. They focus their research on patients with various types of eye conditions. Thanks to the donation from the Cure ADOA Foundation, they can conduct specific research into the regrowth of optic nerve cells of ADOA patients for a year.
Hedy Smit, treasurer of the Cure ADOA Foundation, expects a lot from the Stanford research. “It is focused on healing and restoring vision. At the moment there is no treatment for ADOA. Stanford is one of the most prominent research institutes in the world. This research really offers hope for people with ADOA(-plus).”
Next year, the board of the Cure ADOA Foundation will decide whether to donate another $100,000 to the research, depending on the results in the first few months.
