Seeing Light?

...continued from previous post:  So did the researchers make the blind see?  Any suggestion that vision has been restored is premature. The authors of both reports acknowledge that measures of vision are subjective and visual improvements might reflect a placebo effect. What can be said– at least of the U.S. study– is that the pupil reflex is behaving as if the eye (and brain) are responding to visual stimuli better than before the experiment.

Many will view these two studies as confirmation of the promise of gene transfer– as evidence that gene transfer, in the words of one leader in the field, "has turned a corner." Though I understand the sentiment and view these results as encouraging, I also worry about the way these modest findings are being amplified into a signal event. (to be continued... photo credit: daniel y go, 2008)