Bioengineered cornea restores sight to the blind and visually impaired

> Twenty people who were either blind or on the verge of losing sight due to advanced keratoconus participated in the pilot clinical study and received the biomaterial implant.

I have keratoconus, managed with contacts. I really hope something can come from this. It seems every year there is a new progress in corneal therapies but then it seems to disappear.

I have no knowledge of this subject but the paper seems to say this treatment worked in 20/20 subjects, including, if I'm reading correctly, 14 people who were blind. That seems like a pretty huge deal - especially if it's applicable to ~13 million blind people worldwide.

Does this paper represent a breakthrough or have capabilities like this been gradually progressing?

Something I have experience with - it’s a big step towards grafts not using human tissue. Results are promising and hopefully we have continued lack of rejection, and long term results (the average human transplant lasts around 10-15yrs, this study only followed patients up to 2 years so more info needed).

One might ask, where is this needed? In the US we actually probably have a surplus of donor corneas. However in other countries with less robust infrastructure this may fill a gap.

I don’t think it’s actually 13 million people but probably a big chunk of that group could benefit.