CTVNews.ca Staff Published Tuesday, Jul. 31, 2012 8:46AM EDT Last Updated Tuesday, Jul. 31, 2012 8:50AM EDT

Dale Turner remembers the day his view of the world changed, literally, thanks to a groundbreaking clinical trial that partially restored his vision.

It was 2008 and the 25-year-old lawyer from Peterborough, Ont., who was diagnosed with an incurable genetic eye disease that causes blindness in childhood, was recovering from an eye surgery in Florida as part of the clinical trial.

Three days after the surgery, Turner removed his eye patch and realized his vision had been partially restored.

When I peeled back the patch, I was outside of the University of Florida on a nice bright, sunny day and I had never seen the sky like I had seen it before. It was just one of those things that the proof was right in the sight, Turner told CTVs Canada AM on Tuesday.

Turner was diagnosed with a disease called Lebers congenital amaurosis when he was six years old. The eye disease is hereditary and affects around one in 80,000 newborns and is one of the most common causes of childhood blindness.

Turners family was told by doctors that the disease would lead to total blindness by the time he was 10.

But in 2007 scientists announced they had discovered the gene mutation that was responsible for causing the blindness.

The gene is called the NMNAT1 and doctors estimate it causes around five per cent of cases of Lebers congenital amaurosis.

Turner was asked to participate in an experimental clinical trial that would treat his eye with gene therapy.

Excerpt from:
Gene therapy restores Ontario man’s vision

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