Mass. Eye and Ear performs first FDA-approved gene therapy procedure for inherited disease
Massachusetts Eye and Ear made medical history on Tuesday by performing the first post-FDA approval gene therapy for patients with a form of inherited blindness. The occasion marks the beginning of a new era in medicine, as it is the first time any FDA-approved gene therapy has been given to a patient for any inherited disease. The treatment,... Read More
National School Walkout
Some members of the OGI (including Dr. Pierce who served as the photographer) were able to join the National School Walkout this morning to remember victims of gun violence and support more stringent gun controls.
CRISPR trick in mice points the way to possible treatments for inherited diseases
With the power of the genome-editing tool CRISPR on display, scientists around the world have been hard at work in recent years — developing CRISPR-based therapies that may one day edit disease-causing mutations in our DNA for the treatment of inherited disorders. But there are still great challenges with this powerful tool, and... Read More
Ocular Genomics Institute researchers find a connection between changes in the extracellular matrix of Bruch’s membrane and the activation of the Alternative Complement Pathway in Macular Degeneration.
In a study published online this week in the Human Molecular Genetics journal, Drs. Rosario Fernandez-Godino, Dr. Kinga M. Bujakowska, and Dr. Eric Pierce of the Ocular Genomics Institute at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School reported the remarkable finding that the formation of basal deposits in macular degeneration is... Read More
New RO1 grant for Drs. Bujakowska and Pierce
Drs. Bujakowska and Pierce are happy to have received a new RO1 grant for the project: Genetic Causes and Genetic Modifiers of Inherited Retinal Degenerations. Inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs) are a genetically heterogeneous group of disorders that are important causes of vision loss. The goals of the proposed research are to improve... Read More
Editas Medicine Initiates Clinical Natural History Study to Evaluate Patients with Leber Congenital Amaurosis Type 10 (LCA10)
Massachusetts Eye and Ear named as first site for the study CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 12, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT), a leading genome editing company, today announced that the Company initiated a clinical natural history study of Leber Congenital Amaurosis type 10 (LCA10). LCA10 is caused by mutations... Read More
RETINAL Transcriptome
Original work (2013) View Data in Genome Browser PROJECT DETAILS The human retinal transcriptome data, available on the UCSC Genome Browser, was derived by performing RNA-Seq on 3 normal retina samples. Over 300 million 101 bp paired-end reads were aligned using the RNA-Seq Unified Mapper . These data are available as a... Read More
Young New Zealander Visits the OGI
Louis Corbett, front left, learns the latest in eye research from Dr. Luk Vandenberghe. Louis Corbett, 12, is losing his vision due to Retinitis Pigmentosa, an inherited retinal degeneration that also affects his older brother. His parents decided to take him on a “bucket-list” tour so he could see the world before his vision is permanently... Read More
OGI Partners with Agilent
MEEI Named by Agilent Technologies as Certified Service Provider for Next-Generation Sequencing and aCGH Solutions SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 24, 2013 – Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced that the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School,... Read More
OGI Fellow Wins Poster Award At ARVO
OGI Fellow Wins MIT Poster Award Dr. Chari Fernadez Godino was awarded the 2014 MIT Outstanding Poster Award at this year's annual ARVO Meeting. Her winning poster was entitled "A Primary RPE cell culture model to study early mechanism of macular degeneration". Chari is senior fellow in the Pierce lab and her research is focused on... Read More