
With single gene insertion, blind mice regain sight - lelf
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-03-gene-insertion-mice-regain-sight.html
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ashelmire
This is a pretty big deal. Vision has proved to be one of the more difficult
areas to treat and affects a huge number of people. As developers, we’re also
more likely to have eye issues. Laser treatments have not been very helpful
for macular degeneration and side effects are common and can be just as
damaging, so ophthalmologists have stopped doing them except to halt the most
aggressive cases.

I think we should fund more research like this, as well as technological
solutions.

~~~
uptown
"As developers, we’re also more likely to have eye issues."

What leads you to believe this?

~~~
ashelmire
[https://www.thevisioncouncil.org/content/digital-eye-
strain](https://www.thevisioncouncil.org/content/digital-eye-strain)

[https://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/eye-and-vision-
probl...](https://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/eye-and-vision-
problems/glossary-of-eye-and-vision-conditions/myopia)

etc.

There have been several studies linking myopia and other eye issues to close
work, digital eye strain, dry eyes, etc. I leave it to you to find them on
your own via google.

~~~
eganist
Well, NIH posts some supporting evidence here
([https://nei.nih.gov/health/errors/myopia](https://nei.nih.gov/health/errors/myopia)),
but they seem pretty constrained to people within a critical opthalmic
development window.

> I leave it to you to find them on your own via google.

Considering you made the assertion, is it really a stretch to do the heavy
lifting yourself? For all you know, the person who asked for your specific
insight ("What leads you to believe this?") tried and failed to find anything
within the software engineering realm which could account for an increase in
eye issues.

The closest I could find among the links you provided are:

> People who do an excessive amount of near-vision work may experience a false
> or "pseudo" myopia. Their blurred distance vision is caused by overuse of
> the eyes' focusing mechanism. After long periods of near work, their eyes
> are unable to refocus to see clearly in the distance. Clear distance vision
> usually returns after resting the eyes. However, constant visual stress may
> lead to a permanent reduction in distance vision over time.

But no studies are referenced. I'm unable to find anything specifically, and
I'm the second person asking you. It'd be neat to know what you read which
specifically substantiated the long-term effects of near-space work on the
eyes.

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jacobolus
Muscle strain is caused by keeping a static load on a muscle for a while
without enough breaks to relax and recover.

Both focusing and convergence of the eyes require muscle contraction, and can
lead to eye strain.

Moving work a bit further from the eyes and lower in the field of vision will
reduce the amount of muscle contraction needed. Periodically focusing on more
distant objects will help relax those muscles. For people working at a
computer workstation, it is usually possible to arrange the computer display
3+ feet away from the eyes, and in the bottom half of the field of view.
Periodically looking away from the display while thinking and remembering to
get up and stretch/walk around every once in a while can make a big difference
for anyone experiencing eye strain.

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mnd999
Well that ruins the nursery rhyme.

~~~
chapium
3 blind mice. 3 blind mice. We went to school and studied real hard. We got
some grants and worked even more. We did some research and spliced their genes
now 2 blind mice, 2 blind mice.

Hey, its still catchy.

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xkcd-sucks
Yep, that's how a knockout rescue experiment works

~~~
dstick
Could you elaborate for a bio know-nothing like me? It comes across as a very
dismissive comment when one of the scientists is quoted saying:

"You would inject this virus into a person's eye and, a couple months later,
they'd be seeing something,"

Seems like a pretty big deal to me?

~~~
snovv_crash
It's the bio-equivalent of saying "By restoring a single file, the webcam
started working again!"

In this case the vector for restoring the knocked out gene happens to be a
virus.

~~~
omidkarkouti
Incorrect. Please see my response to gus_massa above.

~~~
snovv_crash
No, this is correct. They've identified 2 known corrupted 'files', and by
restoring them from 'backup' they were able to restore functionality. What is
cool/notable is that the restore method worked on a running device, and they
didn't even need to 'reboot' for the fix to take effect.

