Northwestern University’s Medill Reports featured research by the Neitz lab on using gene therapy to cure color blindness in squirrel monkeys on their Web site in late April.
“We’re really anxious to make it happen,” said Jay Neitz, WaNPRC affiliate scientist. “We have to be able to prove it’s safe before it gets tried on humans. The other thing is that, in order to ultimately develop [the cure] so it can be used on humans, we need to find a financial backer because it is going to be expensive. There’s no theoretical reason we won’t be able to get there and the sooner we can, the better. But I don’t know exactly when.”