In several of the most common blinding diseases, the retina does not fail all at once. The photoreceptors that detect light die, while much of the neural wiring behind them survives largely intact but idle, no longer receiving anything to pass along.
A research consortium led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Barcelona has developed a family of light-switchable small molecules designed to occupy the gap. The compounds, called prosthe6, restored visual responses in zebrafish and mouse models of retinal degeneration under ordinary ambient light.
