About Us

Vision is our most precious sense. Most surveys of people around the world agree that this is the sense people fear losing the most.

The London Project to Cure Blindness is a 5 year research project that aims to develop a surgical cell therapy for Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), which will prevent blindness, restore sight and improve sufferers’ quality of life by 2012.

Our approach is to replace the cells at the back of the eye that are affected in AMD, the retinal pigment epithelium cells (RPE), using human embryonic stem cells (hES) that have been transformed into RPE cells.  These RPE cells will then be transplanted into the patient on a specially engineered patch that will be inserted behind the retina. 

Another important arm of the project is to develop the technology by which hES cells can be transformed into photoreceptors (primarily cones and rods) and transplanted into patients.  It is believed that the photoreceptors are lost after the RPE have degenerated.  The clinical application of this component of the project is for cases where the disease has been present for a number of years.

With the funds raised to date, the London Project to Cure Blindness team is well on its way towards developing a cure for the largest cause of blindness in the West.  This is made possible by the 'world class' research carried out at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, Moorfields Eye Hospital and University of Sheffield.