The branches · Senses · could move a stage within 1 to 5 years
A gene therapy restores sight in an inherited blindness
Some children are born with a broken copy of a single gene the retina needs, and go blind in childhood. A working copy of the gene, carried by a harmless virus, is injected under the retina once, and the cells start making the missing protein. People who could not walk an obstacle course in dim light can do it afterwards. It was the first gene therapy for an inherited disease approved in the United States, and the first upgrade of a sense done by changing a person's genes.
What would count
A person with an inherited retinal disease caused by a named gene, given a working copy of that gene, can see in dimmer light or find their way through a standard obstacle course better than before and better than untreated controls, in a peer-reviewed trial; and a regulator has approved the therapy for use outside a trial.
Who settles it: The peer-reviewed trial reports and the regulator's approval record (the United States Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency)
Where it stands
In clinical use. Reached on 19 December 2017, on the record of fda.gov. Could move a stage within 1 to 5 years.
The last reading
Once a week every upgrade is read against the news, against what would count above. Open a line to see what that week held. Every reading of this upgrade is on this week's reading.
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16 October 2026 Nothing new
Nothing in the window. Luxturna remains the only approved gene therapy for an inherited retinal disease (an insurer's policy dated April 2026 says so), and no count of treated patients large enough for the next rung was found. The three researchers behind it received the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in April, which is recognition, not a rung.
Notes
The therapy is voretigene neparvovec (Luxturna), for disease caused by the RPE65 gene. The animal record is the Briard dog work of 2001; the first-human record is the London trial report of 2008, published the same week as the Philadelphia one. The next rung, in wide use, would need a count in the thousands; the treated population is in the hundreds because the disease is rare.