StemCell Therapy

Ebola. Sickle cell disease. Spinal muscular atrophy. Cystic fibrosis.

Everyone agrees the void is a problem, but theres little consensus on how to tackle it and theres no panacea to speak of.

Behind each disease was a medical breakthrough that Francis Collins highlighted at the congressional hearing on the presidents 2021 NIH budget request, a yearly opportunity to update lawmakers on his agencys progress and priorities. Thanks to three decades of research that dates in part back to his own NIH-backed work at the University of Michigan, for instance, the US has ushered in its first triple therapy for cystic fibrosis last year.

These are dramatic times for NIH research, the director concluded.

Bolstering the burst in new scientific discovery and therapeutic development has been an impressive growth in NIH funding. President Donald Trump may be proposing to cut its budget down 7% next year, but over the past five years it has increased by $11.6 billion, or 39%, according to Rep Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services and Education. That has translated to a $8 billion boost to the total amount of grants awarded between 2014 and 2019, per NIH disclosure.

The steady increases you have provided have brought new life to biomedical research and built the foundation for us to take on new and unexpected challenges, Collins said, challenges like the one thats on everyones mind right now: the global coronavirus outbreak.

What does this new life look like on the ground? Endpoints News spoke to researchers, administrators and advocates, who pointed to different metrics that either measure output or the environment that scientists find themselves working in. The conversations suggest while the increases which followed years of stagnation did pump more resources into translatioal research, they didnt quite solve the challenges basic science still faces.

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Tackling inherited blindness, Editas and Allergan use CRISPR for the first time in the human body - Endpoints News

Researchers have identified a new protein linked to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that could offer new hope for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease, which affects more than 1.5 million people in the UK alone.

The research team, made up of scientists from Cardiff University, Queen Mary University of London, the University of Manchester, and Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, found significantly higher levels of a protein called factor H-related protein 4 (FHR-4) in the blood of AMD patients.

Further investigation, using eye tissue donated for medical research, showed the presence of the FHR-4 protein within the macula the specific region of the eye affected by the disease.

The results of the study, published in Nature Communications, open up new routes for the early diagnosis by measuring FHR-4 levels in the blood, and suggests therapies targeting this protein could provide promising future treatment options for the disease.

Professor Paul Morgan, an expert in complement biology at Cardiff University and leader in the development of the antibodies and assays that underpinned this work, said:

The collaboration between experts in complement biology, eye disease and genetics across Europe has enabled the accumulation of a robust body of evidence that genetically dictated FHR-4 levels in plasma are an important predictor of risk of developing AMD.

The unique antibodies and assays we have developed have potential not only for contributing to risk prediction but also to new ways of treating this common and devastating disease.

FHR-4 regulates the complement system, part of the immune system, which plays a critical role in inflammation and the bodys defence against infection.

Previous studies have linked the complement system to AMD, showing that genetically-inherited faults in key complement proteins are strong risk factors for the condition.

In this study, the researchers used a genetic technique known as a genome-wide association study to identify specific changes in the genome related to the increased levels of FHR-4 found in AMD patients.

They found higher blood FHR-4 levels were associated with changes to genes that code for proteins belonging to the factor H family, which clustered together within a specific region of the genome. The identified genetic changes also overlapped with genetic variants first found to increase the risk of AMD over 20 years ago.

Together, the findings suggest that inherited genetic changes can lead to higher blood FHR-4 levels, which result in uncontrolled activation of the complement system within the eye and drive disease.

Blood levels of FHR4 were measured in 484 patients and 522 age-matched control samples using two independent, established collections of AMD patient data.

There are two main types of AMD .wet AMD and dry AMD. While some treatment options exist for wet AMD, there is currently no available treatment for dry AMD.

The authors said the study represented a step change in their understanding of the involvement of complement activation in AMD.

Professor Simon Clark, a specialist in the regulation of the complement system in health and disease at the University of Manchester, said:

Up until now, the role played by FHR proteins in disease has only ever been inferred.

But now we show a direct link and, more excitingly, become a tangible step closer to identifying a group of potential therapeutic targets to treat this debilitating disease.

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International Team Delivers Breakthrough for Leading Cause of Blindness - Business News Wales

K.L. always knew he might be completely blind before reaching adulthood.

Even as a child he realized something was wrong with his eyes. Although he could see enough to navigate the world in daytime, as soon as the sun set so did his eyesight. Going out with friends was impossible at night. Eventually the world looked as if he was seeing through a large tunnel, focusing on only a tiny fraction at a time.

K.Ls condition didnt have a cure. His family, and he himself, were well aware. I was struggling deeply with what I thought my life would become, he said, but then my mum spotted the trial in a newsletter.

This month, K.L. became one of the first patients to receive a new experimental gene therapy for children with a severe form of inherited vision loss. The treatment, currently not yet named, targets young men who are susceptible to a particularly vicious genetic disorder that gradually destroys the light-sensing portion of their eyes.

Within a month following a single injection, my vision was beginning to return in the treated eye. The sharpness and depth of colors I was slowly beginning to see were so clear and attractive, said K.L.

The trial, a first-in-human case for X-linked Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), was led by Dr. Robert MacLaren at the University of Oxford but spanned multiple centers including the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, which previously championed Luxterna, the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a type of inherited blindness. The results are some of the first targeting a particularly difficult gene prone to mutation in humans. Amazingly, despite some inflammation in early stages, the therapy provided massive improvements in eyesight as early as two weeks following treatment.

Although primarily designed for safety and not to comprehensively study efficacy, the trail still offers hope to 1 in 4,000 people around the world battling gradual, unstoppable vision loss. But it also signals that gene therapy is rapidly coming of age for other neural degenerative problemsperhaps faster than previously anticipated.

It is becoming more apparent to us that novel genetic therapies, when working, lead to a clear improvement in neuronal function, which holds great hope for a variety of other degenerative conditions that have a genetic basis, said MacLaren.

K.L. is one of 80,000 or so people in the US with RP, a genetic condition that slowly eats away at the light-sensing portion of the eyes. RP can be due to one of tens of different mutations in genes that control how light receptors in the eyes develop. RP never had a treatment or a curethe only option for people with the condition is to learn to navigate it without severely disrupting their lives.

In late 2017, everything changed. Luxturna, a gene therapy for inherited RP, was approved by the FDA. The treatment, a synthetic version of a healthy gene, was delivered directly into patients eyesoften young boysto replace a faulty version that eats away at the back of their eyes, the retina.

The retina is a delicate, wispy sheet of tissue that contains elements sensitive to light. In RP, two light-sensing proteins in the retina begin dying out as early as infancy, wiping out a persons peripheral vision and night vision. Most are legally, if not biologically, blind by their early 20s.

Luxturna came as a galvanizing shot to RP sufferers, yet it had severe limitations. A large portion of RP cases are caused by a particularly complex and volatile gene, dubbed RPGR, prone to mutations and other rearrangements. Even as a miracle cure, Luxturna could only tackle a small subset of patients with RPabout 1,000that had a very specific mutation relying on Vitamin A chemical processing.

In other words, for K.L. and other RP suffers, Luxturna offered hope, but not relief.

K.L.s treatment took a direct stab at RPGR, which sits on the X chromosome.

Stay with me. We all know that biological females are generally dubbed XX and males XY. Biological females usually have two copies of the X chromosome, whereas males only have one copy.

This means that biological males are far more susceptible than females to contracting X-linked RP. If anything goes wrong with their single copy, unlike females, they dont have a healthy backup to save the day. Unfortunately, the RPGR gene also happens to be quite temperamental and prone to genetic shifts that cause disease. It makes the gene a terrible test subject in the lab, where it tends to be unstable and difficult to work with.

After years of wrangling in animal models, however, the Oxford team was able to increase its stability and fidelity, so much so that when given to animal models with retinal disease, the stabilized, healthy version was able to restore visual properties.

In their first human trial, 18 patients with confirmed RPGR gene mutations and severe eyesight problems were separated into 6 groups, with each receiving a different dose of the therapy.

Similar to Luxturna, the healthy gene was packaged inside a virus carrier to deliver it into retinal cells in a simple injection surgery. To combat potential side effects of inflammation, which scientists previously found with similar treatments, the patients were given steroid pills to combat inflammation in the eyes.

Only one eye of each patient was treated in an effort to compare to the other, non-treated one. K.L., for example, opted to go for the one with poorer vision, thinking there was nothing to lose.

The speed of my conditions degeneration was unknown, so I had no choice but to apply and do whatever I could to hopefully help others in the future, as well as myself, he said.

Although the three patients receiving low-dose treatment didnt see notable results, others did.

Within a month, said K.L., my visual field exploded and I could see so much more at once than ever before in that eye. Before long, the eye was undoubtedly better than the untreated eye.

The improvements lasted at least six months, and only those who received the highest doses of the virus had minimal signs of inflammation, suggesting that the treatment is relatively safe.

Overall, seven patients gained back significant functionality in their eyesnot just night vision, as with Luxturna, but also their visual fields and clarity. Whats more, in some patients the outer regions of the retina also seemed to kick back into gear, regenerating their functionality even without direct treatment.

We are delighted with the early results of this clinical trial for a degenerative eye disease, said MacLaren. With X-linked RP, the goal is to slow or stop degeneration of the eyes, and despite somewhat inconsistent results between people, the therapy seems overall beneficial.

The results will next be validated in a broader population. Since performing the therapy, the Bascom Palmer team has further treated nine patients using the optimized dose determined from the trial, though outcomes have not yet been published.

For K.L., however, the trial has already revamped his life for the better.

The results have been nothing short of astonishing and life changing for me, I really hope this trial is approved and they can treat what once was my better eye, said K.L.

Image Credit: Free-Photos from Pixabay

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Gene Therapy Is Successfully Treating a Common Form of Inherited Blindness - Singularity Hub

Study illustrates late consultations and socio-economic factors as reasons behind rise in retinopathy of prematurity

Almost 47 per cent of children studying at blind schools in the state have developed visual impairment due to ill-developed eyesight at the birth, a study by city-based hospital has said. The survey that was carried over two years by HV Desai Eye Hospital, Hadapsar, also revealed that blindness among 32 per cent children could have been treated early on and around 15 per cent students were not visually impaired, leaving scope for improvement.

The scrutiny also pointed at the changing causes of the impairment that have altered with socio-economic progress. Col M Deshpande, chief medical director of HV Desai Eye Hospital, said that causes of blindness in children are proxy indicator of the health system of the country and hence the economic progress that a country is making. For example, unavoidable causes (such as blindness due to brain hypoxia) are common in western countries while Vitamin A deficiency related blindness is common in African countries, he said.

Dr Suchetra Kulkarni, principal investigator, said, The whole globe anomaly (ill-developed eyesight at birth) is the major cause of blindness followed by corneal and retinal causes that amount to 15 per cent each and cataract caused the impairment in eight per cent of the kids. Furthermore, every third child was impaired owing to reasons that could have been treated.

When the data was compared with studies conducted by HV Desais team 15 years ago, it showed that blindness due to vit (Vitamin A deficiency), is decreasing. However, cases of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is increasing. This indicates success of governments Vitamin A programme for pregnant mothers as well as their kids has worked. But, it also implies that government now needs to tackle blindness due to ROP observed in premature babies, she, said.

Such recommendations have been sent to the state and central governments, especially concerning ROP.

Dr Kulkarni further stated more doctors need to be trained to manage cataract and ROP and highlighted the need to procure highly specialised equipment to manage these impairments. Awareness among society and teachers, affirming that not all visually impaired children are completely blind, is important. Timely examination can identify children who can see better with low-vision devices, she added.

Dr Aditya Kelkar, phacoemulsification and vitreoretina surgeon at National Institute of Ophthalmology (NIO), blamed late consultation for rising problems. ROP are high in babies born out of consanguineous marriage. Problems like micro-cornea or ill-developed eye that can be detected during prenatal check-up due to latest screening facilities available now. However, still the disease like night blindness can go undetected. There are families that dont consult doctors on time even if the child has a squint or white patches on their eyes, he said.

The study conducted by experts will improve the situation, believes Dr Sanjay Patil, eye surgeon at Patil Eye Hospital. He further explained why the problems have increases in babies, especially the ones that are born premature of through in-vitro fertilisation. Newborns that receive intensive neonatal care in which they are given oxygen therapy due to premature development of their lungs develop ROP. Some doctors have even decreased the concentration of oxygen. A newborn baby goes undiagnosed of ROP if he/she is not referred to an ophthalmologist. The patients with ROP and cataract can be preventable with early diagnose and treatment, said Patil.

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Causes of blindness in babies are changing - Pune Mirror

TuesdayMar3,2020at12:49PMMar3,2020at12:49PM

1 The Easton Lions Auction has moved to the Richardson Olmsted School Caf. It will end as part of the first Celebration of Easton Dinner on Saturday, March 7 from 5:30 to 8:45 p.m.

2 The Lions are holding an online only auction from Feb. 29 until Saturday, March 7 at 8:30 p.m. All items are available to be viewed online now at http://www.EastonLions.org

3 Auction will close in four parts. Some items at 7 p.m. Some at 7:30 p.m. Some at 8 p.m. The last (and mostly higher priced items) will close at 8:30 p.m.

4 This is an online only auction for bidding. No phones. No boards. The Lions will have some computers and helpers at the event for people who can't or dont know how to bid online.

5 Please set up your bid account now. Register to bid at EastonLions.org/auction via your computer or mobile phone. So yes, you can now follow the auction on your phone and bid while you shop or watch your kids game or play etc.

6 The Celebration of Easton Dinner will be catered by Twins Catering and the last two hours of the auction will be broadcast live on Easton Cable Access Television CH # 9 or 22 - and online at the Lions website and on Facebook and Twitter.

7 If you really want an item, bid high and bid early and bid at deadline. Our web provider Bidding for Good - does offer you the option (like eBay etc.) to bid low early but secretly include your highest bid price: the system will up your bid incrementally if someone out- bids you.

8 Please pick up your items at the school before 9 p.m. as usual, or they can be mailed to you for an extra charge etc. Please come early.

9 You can bid in the Auction Room now.

10 Thanks to our sponsors: Every single penny goes to charity, with most going to Aid the Blind. This funds eyeglasses for kids, operations for the elderly, shots to prevent parasites that cause blindness in poor countries, and research to cure blindness. So bid high and get your item and help people at the same time. This is the Lions biggest fundraiser of the year.

For more info contact us at Auction@EastonLions.org

Original post:
10 things to know about the Easton Lions Auction on March 7 - Wicked Local Easton

Members of Tucson Society of the Blind are hosting a duo of spring concerts featuring harpist Christine Vivona accompanied by trombonist Rob Boone on Thursday, March 5, and cocountry-western guitarist Bill Ganz on Friday, March 6.

The concerts, complete with silent auctions, will be staged at Fellowship Square, 8111 E. Broadway.

This spring concert is our main fundraiser for the year and it is always a great time, said Linda Lueders, who is helping to coordinate the silent auctions for the events. Christine Vivona is wonderful and her husband, Rob Boone, is an excellent musician in his own right. On Friday, Bill Ganz should be a hit: We are in the West and country music is always popular.

Lueders became involved with the society three years ago after attending a spring concert with her husband, Ralph, who is blind. Since then, she has been an active volunteer for the nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational, emotional and social support for the visually impaired many of whom live with conditions such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, and blindness and their families.

The whole premise for TSB is to support those with low vision and to educate the community about people with vision issues, Lueders said. There are lots of issues regarding blindness that members of the general public arent aware of, and TSB provides practical hints for daily living and resources and information about different aids to help people with low vision. They also give people with vision issues the opportunity to socialize with others who have similar issues. They provide a great social outlet.

Read more from the original source:
Tucson Society of the Blind hosting 2 benefit concerts - Arizona Daily Star

A new treatment being pioneered by scientists in Aberdeen has enjoyed success in improving the vision of partially blind patients.

The study has been working with people who have suffered traumatic and sudden sight loss following brain injuries.

More than 300 patients were involved and it was found the programme developed for rehabilitation of blindness after strokes and other injuries improved vision in over 80% of patients.

The research was steered by Professor Arash Sahraie from Aberdeen Universitys School of Psychology and carried out in conjunction with Miami Universitys Miller School of Medicine.

Professor Sahraie said the NeuroEyeCoach programme had delivered major improvements to peoples lives.

Blindness after brain injury is common and its effect on patients daily life is sudden, he said.

Those affected have great difficulty finding their way around and avoiding obstacles and this therapy is designed to help this group of patients.

We found that following treatment, patients ability to detect and avoid obstacles improved.

They are also seeing things much faster and also state that the therapy improved their activities of daily life.

The study found that that improvements were not dependent on age, gender, side of blindness, nor the time elapsed since the brain injury.

The team has also found there was no upper age limit to the success of the treatment, as its results showed the treatment improved vision even in 90-year-old patients.

Dr Sahraie added: Our results show that rehabilitation of vision loss after brain injury is possible and can drastically improve patients quality of life.

A fundamental finding is that no matter how old the patients were, or when they had their vision loss, if they had problems coping with everyday tasks like getting about or finding objects, the therapy would help them to get better.

So, it is never too late, or patients are never too old to benefit from rehabilitation therapy.

The large scale of this study has provided answers to important questions.

We have found that there is no limit to the success of the treatment in terms of age, time since injury or gender.

This is extremely encouraging and we hope will be of benefit to the tens of thousands of people who live with blindness after brain injury.

The web-based NeuroEyeCoach program was designed to improve the speed and effectiveness of eye movements to better compensate for the patients visual field loss experienced as a result of damage suffered to the brain.

The research teams work was funded by NovaVision Inc. Findings from the study the largest of its kind have been published in the scientific journal Cortex.

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Treatment for blindness successful in largest ever study led by Aberdeen researcher - Press and Journal

James Haddrell, artistic and executive director of Greenwich Theatre

It is often surprising how prescient the arts can be. Whether science fiction writers are predicting the kind of technological innovation that comes along decades later, or storytellers foretell societal changes, artists seem to get it right over and over again. In H G Wells The World Set Free the author not only predicted the invention of the atomic bomb he named it and explained how it would work. Aldous Huxley predicted the invention and mass use of antidepressants in Brave New World. Sixteen years ago a now famous episode of The Simpsons predicted that Donald Trump would become president of the United States. Orwells 1984 contains countless predictions from computer based speech transcription to facial recognition software all of which are coming true today.

Now, with new coronavirus diagnoses being announced every day, a theatre show developed in Athens three years ago and first presented in London in 2017 seems to have predicted the appearance of a global epidemic powerful enough to shut down whole towns around the world.

The White Plague, produced by Ferodo Bridges and coming to Greenwich Theatre in March, tells the story of a plague of blindness that infects a western city, with the illness passed rapidly from person to person until the authorities are forced to quarantine those affected in a hastily designated and wholly unsuitable containment facility. Set almost entirely inside the walls of the quarantine facility, the show takes the audacious step of providing the entire audience with specially designed, illuminated blindfolds, subjecting them to the same white blindness as the characters in the story. They can hear the action around them but not see it.

I wanted to create something that could be experienced without sight the shows director Alexander Raptotasios told me. Something that would instead enhance our other senses and make us question how much we judge things with our eyes.Our main concern was to keep the narrative clear for the audience and to use the sensory-interactive parts of the show to help the audience be immersed and use their own sense memory to unlock emotions.

The show starts outside of the theatre studio with the audience able to see, before blindness takes hold and they are led into the theatre.

They have to rely on a stranger to guide them to their seat, to offer them a blanket, food and water, to keep them safe, said Alexander. The show was made to cultivate the feelings of solidarity and community in the audience, and by the end of it we want everyone to feel a bond that is caused both by the story but also by the physical practicalities of the play. I want people to question how we see each other every day on the street, within institutions, families and as a country.

The show deals with complicated questions he concludes. We do not pretend to offer a lesson or an answer, but we want to create the right circumstances that will allow us and the audience to dissect our prejudices and to question the reasons we form factions and marginalise those different from us and hopefully to find the things that unite us.

The White Plague plays at Greenwich Theatre from 11-15 March 2020

Continued here:
Theatre's capacity to predict the future - London News Online

"Fashion is a great equaliser," she said. "When I put effort in and dress up, people see me as the trainer of my [guide] dog, rather than the person who needs the assistance. It puts me at an equal level with everyone else because people assume I am fully sighted."

Slowly, the barriers between fashion and blindness are breaking down.

American designer Tommy Hilfiger used his trip to Australia last November to announce a new accessible clothing range. And the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival will include two events on this month's program that have been designed to include members of the low-vision community.

US designer Tommy Hilfiger is launching a line of accessible clothing.Credit:AAP

This week, Ms McPherson will model in a parade of Kangan Institute students' designs, wearing a jacket made in a partnership between the TAFE and Guide Dogs Victoria.

Sabrina Sekerovski, the graduate who made the lilac jacket, said she included many tactile elements, including faux fur, embroidery and buttons to enhance Ms McPherson's ability to enjoy elements of the jacket without necessarily being able to see them fully.

"It gets you thinking about what someone with vision impairment might need [from fashion]," she said. "For example, [Ms McPherson] said anything below knee length was difficult because she has a guide dog."

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Vision Australia's Vildana Prajak said the low-vision community often have disposable income but sometimes retailers put up too many barriers to encourage people with sight issues to spend with them.

"No one [in the fashion industry] is talking to us," says Ms Prajak, who has low vision resulting from a degenerative condition. "We are not considered an audience that corporations can tap into."

The other fashion festival event is a "spoken" runway, where guests can also take part in a "tactile tour" backstage to feel the garments before the show, to help them better experience what is on the catwalk.

"You don't often hear the word 'fashion' and 'disability' in the same sentence," Ms Prajak said. "The social inclusion at [the event's] core is challenging stereotypes. Its inviting people who have been traditionally excluded from fashion, which is so visual."

The Kangan TAFE parade is at the Melbourne Pavillion, Kensington, March 4, 6pm. The Spoken Runways, co-presented by Vision Australia, are on March 13 and 14, 7pm. Details vamff.com.au.

Melissa Singer is National Fashion Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

See original here:
Is fashion still largely blind to people with vision impairment? - The Age

2 March 2020

A clinical trial using gene therapy for treating a common cause of genetic blindness published positive results in Nature Medicine.

Eighteen men with the genetic disorder X-linked retinitis pigmentosa were enrolled in a six-month clinical trial, seven of whomsaw improvements in their vision for the full duration of the trial.

X-linked retinitis pigmentosa is caused by mutations in the RPGR gene and is the most common cause of blindness in young people. Beginning in early childhood, this disease causes degeneration of photoreceptors in the eye leading to severe sight loss.

The success of a gene therapy in treating another retinal disorder (see BioNews 1036), led the team to believe X-linked retinitis pigmentosa patients could also benefit from a gene therapy approach.

The originalmethoduseda viralvectorto deliver a healthy copy of the mutated gene, effectively slowingdown the degeneration and maintainingthe sight of patients with the inherited retinal disorderLeber's Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) .

TheRPGR genepresented an additional challenge due to itscomplicated genetic code thatrendersit unstable and thus difficult to study. In order to apply the method, theteam led by Professor Robert MacLaren of Oxford University had to reprogram the RPGR gene to stabilise it.

In the trial, 18 patients with severe retinal degeneration were treated with increasing doses of the correct version of the RPGR gene.

After one month of treatment seven out of the 12 patients administered one of the top four doses of treatment began to show visual improvements, which lasted for the duration of the trial.

Professor MacLaren said: 'We are delighted with the early results of this clinical trial for a degenerative eye disease. It is becoming more apparent to us that novel genetic therapies, when working, lead to a clear improvement in neuronal function, which holds great hope for a variety of other degenerative conditions that have a genetic basis.'

The trial was not designed to test efficacy of the drug, as the researchers believe appropriate dosage will depend on the severity of degeneration inthepatient and the effects of the inflammation experienced.

The trial met its safety requirements and will now begin further testing comparing two doses of the vector therapy with a placebo.

Dr Byron Lam at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami, who took part in the international multi-centre study, said: 'This gene therapy study offers hope for patients with this currently untreatable blinding disease.'

More:
Retinal gene therapy trial shows positive result - BioNews

If your eyesight is reasonable, can you see whats right in front of you?

What an odd question, you may think. But psychologists have discovered that although at some level we register what we look at, were not consciously aware of a lot of it.

American psychologists Arien Mack and Irvin Rock coined the term inattentional blindness in 1998 when they found 25-50 per cent of participants asked to look at visual displays failed to notice particular shapes if not asked to look for them specifically. This attracted the interest of psychologist Daniel Simons.

Simons and Christopher Chabris, then at Harvard, asked 192 undergraduates to watch a video clip of students dressed in black or white T-shirts passing a basketball to one another. Each participant was tasked with counting the number of passes made by players wearing either black or white. About two-thirds into the 75-second clip, an unexpected event took place: either a woman holding an opened umbrella or dressed in a gorilla suit strolled through the players. When asked afterwards, 46 per cent of the participants said they hadnt noticed anything unusual.

Next, Simons and Daniel Levin at Kent State asked someone to approach pedestrians on a college campus and ask for directions. After about 15 seconds, two other people carrying a large door walked between them. During that brief moment, the person asking for directions changed places with one of the two people carrying the door, so, when the pedestrian could once again see the person he was helping, that person had become someone different. Yet when questioned later, seven of the 15 again, nearly half the pedestrians failed to notice the switch.

Next, Ronald Resnick at the University of British Columbia asked observers to view a sequence of displays that alternated between an image of a scene say a market place and the same scene with one easily visible detail changed. A number of studies followed using this flicker paradigm and, time and time again, only about half the participants reported any difference although, when told where to direct their attention, most spotted the changes immediately. Using computer generated geometric patterns, Simons recently gave participants varying amounts of time to notice an unexpected object passing through patterns on their screens. Yet even when given more time, around half the participants still failed to see what was right before them.

These studies suggest that, unless we think about it, well see only what were looking for or are asked to look for, thereby merely reinforcing what we already know and expect.

This year, why not open yourself to new possibilities and keep your outlook fresh? Its easy to do and neednt take long.

Once a day for two minutes, stop your purposeful doing and become curious. Pick up an object you think you know well and study it, fully, without expectations or judgment. Youll be pleasantly surprised how this simple exercise will help you see more; not just objects around you, but possibilities and opportunities you may be missing.

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How much do we really 'see', even with good eyesight - Telegraph.co.uk

Brunel University Londons Dr Victor Hernandez Hernandez has been awarded 220,191 from Great Ormond Street Hospital Childrens Charity and Sparks, the childrens medical research charity, to fund his research into the advancement of treatment for Bardet Biedl Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that leads to blindness, learning disabilities and weight gain. There is currently no cure.

This is part of a 2.3 million investment into child health research projects across the UK led by the two charities - the largest annual charitable call dedicated to funding research into child health conditions, and announced to coincide with national Rare Disease Day on the 29 February.

Dr Victor Hernandez Hernandezs project will investigate whether gene therapy to both the eyes and the brain, could correct the genetic mistake that causes the condition, alleviating the most serious and life-changing symptoms in one go.

Dr. Victor Hernandez Hernandez, Lecturer at Brunel University London says, I am delighted to have received funding from GOSH Charity and Sparks which will enable us to further our research to help children with Bardet-Biedl Syndrome. Its fantastic to know that these charities are making such a large amount available for child health researchers across the UK to bid for each year.

Kiki Syrad, Director of Grants and Impact at GOSH Charity and Sparks charity, said: Year on year we are amazed by the quality and diversity of applications we receive from researchers across the UK, like Dr Victor Hernandez Hernandez and the life-changing potential their projects have.

The projects we have chosen to fund this year reflect the ambition of both GOSH Charity and Sparks to drive new tests and treatments from the lab bench to the patients bedside. Seriously ill children urgently need new options and our aim is to fund research projects that will ultimately help speed up the diagnosis of rare and complex conditions, or create a step-change in the treatment options available.

Of the 2.3 million investment, 182,926 has been pledged by thee condition-specific charities (the Norrie Disease Foundation, Dravet Syndrome UK, and the Myotubular Trust) to help co-fund research into these diseases. This injection of funds will provide a huge boost as paediatric research is severely underfunded, receiving only five per cent of public and charitable research funding in the UK each year1.

Other projects to receive funding include research that aims to unravel the drivers of aggressive childhood brain tumours; the UK arm of a clinical trial to assess whether a breast cancer drug could help children with a rare and debilitating muscle disorder; and the development of an implantable and removable liver patch that could hold the key to reducing toxic chemical levels in the blood of children with a rare metabolic conditions,

The commitment to paediatric research funding reflects GOSH Charity and Sparks ambitions to help unlock breakthroughs in childrens medicines that will find treatments and cures for seriously ill children with rare and complex conditions.

Original post:
2.3M cash injection for child health research by leading children's charities - including Uxbridge based project - Brunel University News

The charity calls for Scottish health boards to ensure that accessible information policies are implemented

Blind and partially sighted people are still struggling to receive healthcare information in a format that is accessible to them, according to new research published by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) Scotland.

The Communications failure report released by the charity last week (17 February) highlights that patient confidentiality is breached when people have to rely on carers, relatives and friends to read appointment letters, medication and test results.

Author of the report, Laura Jones warned: This can put patients at risk of missing treatment as well as being confused or misinformed about their healthcare needs. The NHS, itself, puts great emphasis on the cost, in money and time, of missed appointments to over-burdened clinics, so giving patients accessible information makes sense.

The report was launched by MSP Stuart McMillan and calls for the countrys 14 health boards to ensure that accessible information policies are implemented. It also encourages awareness training for all healthcare staff.

Ms Jones highlighted that it has been almost 10 years since The Patients Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 was introduced. The charter states You have the right to be given information about your care and treatment in a format or language that meets your needs.

The report found that some patients had not been informed that they could request information in alternative formats, while others lacked the confidence to request information in accessible formats as they did not want to be considered a burden or difficult.

While the report notes that increasingly healthcare information is provided online, people with disabilities show low levels of digital uptake.

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RNIB Scotland report highlights problems faced by patients with severe sight and blindness - AOP

Global Uveitis Treatment Market: Global Size, Trends, Competitive, and Historical & Forecast Analysis, 2019-2025Increasing demand for advanced healthcare products and rising number of patients affected by Cataract and other eye related diseases are some factors driving the growth of Global Uveitis Treatment Market.

Global Uveitis Treatment Market is valued around USD 475.7 Million in 2018 and expected to reach USD 724.8 Million by 2025 with the CAGR of 6.2% over the forecast period.

Uveitis disease directly affects the eyes and the most common symptoms of uveitis are eye inflammation and swelling that can destroy eye tissues. Whether its humans eye or any animals, uveitis affects everyone and can lead to poor vision or blindness. It is named as uveitis because mostly the swelling affects the part of eye which called uvea. Basically eye is made of several layers and uvea is the middle layer, its between white part of eye and the inner layers of eye which called the sclera.

Uvea has three important structures the iris, the ciliary body and the choroid. The Iris is colored circle at the front of eye, the ciliary body helps to focus eye lens and makes fluid that nourishes inside of eye and the choroid is group of blood vessels which gives the nutritions to the retina it needs. People who are suffering from AIDS, Ankylosing spondylitis, Behcets disease, CMV retinitis, Herpes zoster infection, Histoplasmosis, Kawasaki disease, Multiple sclerosis, Psoriasis, Reactive arthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis etc. have greater risk of having uveitis than normal people.

Global uveitis treatment market is segmented on the basis of type, application and region & country level. On the basis of type, the market is segmented into anterior uveitis, posterior uveitis, intermediate uveitis and Panuveitis. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, online pharmacies and drug stores.

The regions covered in this Uveitis Treatment Market report are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. On the basis of country level, market of Uveitis Treatment is sub divided into U.S., Mexico, Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, India, South East Asia, GCC, Africa, etc.

Global Uveitis Treatment Market report covers prominent players like Allergan, Bausch & Lomb, Novartis, AbbVie, Santen Pharmaceutical, Eyegate Pharmaceuticals, Alimera Sciences.

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Market Dynamics-

Advanced technological requirements in healthcare, increasing disposable income and high expenditure on healthcare are some of the factors driving the market of uveitis treatment. Uveitis can affect eyes through dirt, pollution, viral, fungal, bacterial infections, etc. and uveitis cause cataract. Cataract is responsible for worlds around 51% of blindness which is about 20 million people. Smokers have more risk of uveitis and of blindness. There are around 1.2 million people who are smokers, there is a huge number of smokers some of them are suffering from diseases and 80% of them are from low and middle income countries. Thus, all these factors are expected to foster the growth of this market.

However, high cost of treatment and lack of skilled professionals can restrain the market growth. In spite of this, technological advancement, increasing numbers of hospitals, diagnostic centers, online treatments are some factors which can provide various opportunities for the further growth of the market.

North America is expected to dominate the Global Uveitis Treatment owing to the high investment in this field. In addition, research and development by leading players to develop new innovative products in this region is also fostering the market growth. For example, Allergan expanded REFRESH portfolio with new REFRESH, RELIEVA Lubricant Eye Drop Product Line. The annual direct medical cost in the US is estimated to USD 117 million. Uveitis accounts 10% of blindness globally. 60%-80% uveitis patient occur in patient in third to sixth decade of life with an age of occurrence of 35. The prevalence of uveitis is estimated 17 per 100000 in Europe which is comparable to the US. Uveitis is one of the major reasons for the birth of cataract and it accounts for 30%50% of blindness in most Asian countries.

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Uveitis Treatment Market Research Report: Analysis by SWOT, Capacity, Production and Value Future Forecast To 2025 - News Times

GREELEY, Colo. - Augie, a 12-year-old pug has never seen his best friend Pepe, achihuahua, but that doesnt matter. The two have been inseparable for years.

The duo arrived at the Colorado Pug Rescue after their owner was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Augie has been blind most of his life, according to foster parent Cyndi Trimber. They sleep together, she said. Its really sweet. Its really sweet that they kind of depend on each other like that.

Unfortunately, the pugs emotional support pal couldnt prepare him for what would happen next. Augies blindness was so bad, he had to have both of his eyes removed a couple of weeks ago. Plus, some major dental surgery.

The group was billed $3100 for the operations, emergency money they didnt expect to spend, given it helps more than 100 pugs throughout the year.

Trimber said, I went to pick him up and Im like, Holy! Its a foster group. You know? Where are we going to get that kind of money?

The Colorado Pug Rescue is hoping some kind folks will help with donations and perhaps provide these best friends with a forever home.

I just want them to have the best possible life they can have, Trimber explained.

Learn more about how to help Augie and Pepe here.

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Blind pug and his seeing-eye chihuahua in need of forever home - FOX 29 News Philadelphia

HE has become a global sensation among the fashion press, even though he hasnt debuted professionally yet. Harikrishnan KS, 26, just presented his graduating collection at the UKs cutting-edge London College of Fashion and received both favourable reviews as well as trolling for his unusual silhouettes (musician MC Hammer tweeted hes a fan). The infl atable latex trousers with impossible proportions have been featured on the BBC and in magazines like the British Vogue, i-D and Dazed, to name a few. Hari, as he calls himself, hails from Kerala and studied at NIFT Bangalore, before he went on to assist the talented Woolmark Prize winner Suket Dhir in New Delhi. People are going nuts about him, his collection was really avant-garde, Dhir says proudly. Hari, who suff ers from colour blindness, tells your diarist, I was playing with my dog when I decided to see myself through his eyes. Its almost like seeing the world through a fi sh-eye lens. He adds he has no interest in selling his infl atable pants, but has received a couple of orders for music video costumes. Haris fashion heroes are French graphic designer and illustrator Jean-Paul Goude, and Dhir, of course.

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Harikrishnan KS' graduating collection makes a noise at the London College of Fashion - Ahmedabad Mirror

Part of the newly introduced Titan Accent Shades Collection, the 8174_7530 brings the hinge-free, three-piece mount frames of Titan Minimal Art together with the shapes of the brands Accent Shades.

(518) 272-5500, silhouette.com

$420

Offering a generous nod to the Palme dOr, the highest award given at the Cannes Film Festival, the SCHD48S features a palm-leaf pattern on each lens and is part of the Palm Collection, naturally.

(800) 423-3023, derigo.us

$750

Blings the thing for this MK1058B, putting Swarovski crystals to work on triple-gradient lenses in front of jewelry-chain inspired temples.

(800) 422-2020, my.luxottica.com

$209

Inspired by the Fendi Couture Fall/Winter 2019-20 Collection, the FF 0404/G/S celebrates its iconic logo on an oversized sun with metal-studded temples.

(800) 631-1188, mysafilo.com

$365

A star is born with the GG0666S, a cat-eye shape that makes an impact with Guccis cant miss logo and star-shaped rivets.

kering.com

$725

Direct sunlight brings the Lovelace in gunpowder/18k gold with yellow gradient Stardust lenses to life with speckled lenses by Dalloz Creations.

leisure-society.com

$625

Featuring a mask design and metal micro studs, the MCM694S is defined by double-lens layering and a visible-through-the-temples wire core.

(800) 645-1300, marchon.com

$435

Featured in the Berluti Spring-Summer 2020 Collection, the BL40007U in black acetate features smoke lenses with silver-mirror Scritto print.

thelios.com

$510

The GLCO x Malbon Golf collaboration includes the Hampton, which reveals a Malbon breath logo when and only when the lenses fog up.

garrettleight.com

$340

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Harder to Rx but Easy on the Eyes, These 9 Styles Make the Lenses the Main Attraction - InvisionMag

Optomeds handheld fundus cameras are sold in over 60 countries around the world and used by major public hospitals, primary care centres and private clinics Image Credit: Supplied Highlights

Our eyes are considered the most important sense. Even though most of us recognise the importance of our sight, many of us are not aware of the importance of systematic eye checks and we are not protecting this valuable sense well enough

Sight is our most precious sense. Most of what we learn is through our eyes and we fear to lose our vision more than any other sense.(1)

Studies have shown that vision impairment is often associated with various negative health outcomes and poor quality of life.(2) Still, approximately 1.3 billion people globally live with some form of vision impairment.(3) Over 80 per cent of all vision impairment could be avoided by early detection and appropriate treatment. Therefore, offering effective and accessible eye care services is key for controlling visual impairment including blindness.(4)

Need for better access to eye examinations

Optomed Plc was founded in 2005 to meet the challenge of more accessible and affordable eye screening devices. Seppo Kopsala, the CEO and founder of Optomed states: In the time when Optomed was established, retinal examinations and eye screenings were performed mainly on the hospital level. The service was not available in rural areas, low-income countries or with patient groups that are not able to travel and sit in front of a tabletop fundus camera. This poor access to eye examinations was the reason why we started developing a portable, handheld fundus camera so that the service would be available to all individuals worldwide and we could help healthcare professionals to prevent blinding eye diseases by early detection.

Today, Optomed is a world-leading manufacturer of handheld fundus cameras and screening management software with integrated Artificial Intelligence for diagnosing the images. Our cameras are sold in over 60 countries globally and we also make handheld fundus cameras to other major medical technology companies. Optomed cameras are being used by major public hospitals, primary care centres, private clinics, non-government and charity organisations around the world and, they have medical device approvals in all key markets, e.g. CE approval, FDA approval, and Chinese CFDA approval. Our mission at Optomed is to provide innovative and affordable eye-screening solutions to prevent blindness and make eye-screening available for all.

Eyes are a gateway to examining blood vessels

Blood vessels can be observed non-invasively in eyes, so they serve as a window to examine signs of several diseases. Today, fundus imaging is routinely used to screen for eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, and to seek signs of age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. With the rise of artificial intelligence, new ways to exploit retinal images have been found especially within neurology and cardiology to study diseases like dementia, stroke and cardiovascular diseases. (5-8)

It is easy to claim that the importance of regular eye check-ups and fundus imaging will increase in the future, thanks to its simplicity, non-invasive characteristics, and the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence for image analysis. Optomed has the right products and know-how to help healthcare providers globally to organise effective and affordable eye-screening programs and together we can aim to stop the growth of preventable blindness.

For more information contact:

Niina Huikuri,Vice President Marketing |+358 40 535 0998 |niina.huikuri@optomed.com

Laura Piila,Vice President Devices | +358 40 588 1187 | laura.piila@optomed.com

Yrttipellontie 1,90230 Oulu, Finland |www.optomed.com

1. J.Zaba. Journal of Behavioral Optometry, Volume 22, 2011

2. Making Eye Health a Population Health Imperative: Vision for Tomorrow. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. National Academies Press (US); 2016 Sep 15

3. Seth R Flaxman et al., Global causes of blindness and distance vision impairment 1990-2020: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Glob Health, October 2017.

4. WHO. Vision impairment and blindness. Media centre, Fact sheet, October 2017, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets

WHO. Prevention of blindness from diabetes mellitus. Report of a WHO consultation

5. Cheung CY, Chen C, Wong TY (2015) Ocular fundus photography as a tool to study stroke and dementia. Semin Neurol. 35(5): 481-490.

6. McGrory S, Cameron JR, Pellegrini E, Warren C, Doubal FN, Deary IJ, Dhillon B, Wardlaw JM, Trucco E, MacGillivray TJ (2016) The application of retinal fundus camera imaging in dementia:

A systematic review. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 6:91-107.

7. Ting DSW, Pasquale LR, Peng L, Campbell JP, Lee AY, Raman R, Tan GSW, Schmetterer L, Keane PA, Wong TY (2018) Artificial intelligence and deep learning in ophthalmology.

Br J Ophthalmol Epub ahead of print: 08/11/2018.

8. Poplin R, Varadarajan AV, Blumer K, Liu Y, McConnell MV, Corrado GS, Peng L, Webster DR (2018) Prediction of cardiovascular risk factors from retinal fundus photographs via deep learning.

Nat Biomed Eng 2, 158-164.

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Majority of blindness could be avoided with regular eye check-ups - Gulf News

(PRESS RELEASE) CHICAGO In observance of Rare Disease Day on Feb. 29, 2020, Prevent Blindness, the nations oldest volunteer eye health organization, is offering educational resources on uveitis, an inflammatory eye disease. Uveitis is a general term describing a group of inflammatory diseases that produces swelling and destroys eye tissues in the uvea (the middle layer of the eye that contains most blood vessels), according to the National Eye Institute. Uveitis is caused by an eye injury or surgery, an infection, autoimmune diseases or systemic inflammatory disorders that affect the whole body, or the cause can be unknown.

In addition, Prevent Blindness offers a new patient education resource dedicated to keratitis, an inflammation of the cornea. The cornea is the clear, protective outer layer of the eye.

Prevent Blindness offers dedicated web pages at http://www.preventblindness.org/uveitis and http://www.PreventBlindness.org/keratitis, as well as a new educational video. Downloadable fact sheets are also available, including, Uveitis Causes, Uveitis Facts, Uveitis Patient Guide, and Keratitis. Development of these new resources was supported by a grant from Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals.

Without early detection and treatment, inflammatory eye diseases can lead to permanent vision loss. The prevalence of inflammatory eye diseases can vary based on the type and cause of the condition. Uveitis causes about 30,000 new cases of legal blindness annually in the United States and accounts for about 1015 percent of all cases of total blindness in the country.

Uveitis symptoms may occur quickly in an acute form (lasts less than six weeks) or slowly in a chronic form (lasts longer than six weeks). Symptoms may affect one or both eyes.

Uveitis can affect anyone at any age, but it is most commonly seen in working age adults, and has a higher prevalence in women. In addition, smoking may increase the risk of getting uveitis.

General eye inflammation occurs in response to infection, allergies, autoimmune disorders, irritation, injury, or trauma to the eyes, eyelids, or surrounding tissues. Most cases of eye inflammation can be successfully treated. However, in some cases there can be an eye disease present, which can pose a threat to eyesight.

According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 930,000 doctors office and outpatient clinic visits and 58,000 emergency department visits for keratitis or contact lens disorders occur annually. And, episodes of keratitis and contact lens disorders cost an estimated $175 million in direct health care expenditures.

Wearing contact lenses, especially sleeping in the lenses, increases the risk of both infectious and noninfectious keratitis. The risk increases from wearing them longer than prescribed, improper cleaning and disinfection, and wearing contact lenses while exposed to water (such as in swimming pools or hot tubs).

Inflammatory eye diseases are very serious and can lead to significant vision loss and even blindness, said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. It is very important to have regular, comprehensive eye exams, to help catch vision issues early on. We encourage everyone to make an appointment with an eye doctor immediately if you experience any sudden vision changes to help save your sight in the future.

For more information on uveitis, please call Prevent Blindness at (800) 331-2020 or visit https://www.preventblindness.org/uveitis. For more information on keratitis, visit https://www.preventblindness.org/keratitis. For a listing of vision care financial assistance programs in English or Spanish, visit https://www.preventblindness.org/vision-care-financial-assistance-information.

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Prevent Blindness Offers New Educational Resources on Uveitis and Keratitis for Rare Disease Day - InvisionMag

In this file photo taken on March 11, 2015, French founder of the Communaut de l'Arche (Arch community) Jean Vanier speaks during a press conference in central London. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images

The news about Jean Vanier sexually abusing at least six women was delivered to me Saturday morning in an email containing two words: Aw sh .

Its devastating news for women. We all knew instantly that this one was different. This is not some arrogant Harvey Weinstein we can enjoy being taken down. This one forces us to wrestle with the problem at a much deeper level. I spent the day on the phone with friends.

For women, living in a patriarchy requires constant vigilance. We try to steer clear of the obvious misogynists. We try to avoid being beaten or murdered by the Jekyll and Hydes who reveal their true selves only after marriage and children. We dodge harassment in the workplace and on the street; fend off unwanted sex in our dating lives. We try to pretend the world is not awash in violent pornography that dehumanizes and degrades us as a class; try not to know that some of the men we love are turned on by our subordination.

We have our guard up all the time. So when a great humanitarian, champion of the marginalized and dispossessed, friend of the poorest of the poor, is revealed to have sexually abused women, it feels completely hopeless. Like there is no safe place for us anywhere on the planet. How do we reconcile Vaniers magnificent humanity and vision of the common good with his abuse of women? Put very simply, his vision of justice did not include women.

I go to the basement and rummage through boxes until I find the two letters I received from Jean Vanier. I wrote to Vanier in 1999 after hearing a broadcast of his Massey Lecture, On Being Human. He spoke inspiringly about forgiveness as the path to peace. About how we are all wounded, hurting, trapped behind walls and needing to reach out for each other. It made me want to go out and forgive the whole world.

A letter from Jean Vanier to Donna F. Johnsonjpg

But I was bothered by something. At that time, I had been working for more than a decade in a shelter for abused women. I was skeptical about moving too quickly to forgiveness. For me, forgiveness was part of a process of reconciliation; a two-way street involving responsibility-taking and reparation for harms done; the active making of amends. Rarely had I seen a man take responsibility for hurting a woman. What Id seen was justification and more abuse.

Heres an excerpt from my letter:

Dear M. Vanier, I have a question for you. How are we to be with people who not only deny responsibility for harm done but seem actively engaged in becoming less human, more oppressive towards the victim? I am thinking about the relations between men and women. I have worked for 13 years with battered women, women who are controlled, beaten and sexually abused by their intimate partners. There is no official war declared on women but our world is dominated by patriarchal thought and ways and women are considered less than human in this system. How are women to be in the presence of men who take no responsibility for their abusive, violent, degrading and oppressive behaviour? Men who not only act reprehensibly but turn the tables on their victims, making them out to be the abusive ones, the crazy ones in court? Id be interested in your thoughts.

Vanier wrote back from Trosly-Breuil in his microscopic handwriting.

Dear Donna, Love to you. Thank you for your letter. Not easy to answer It is the same question as for these men killing people in Kosovo. They are convinced they are right, the other, evil. The Nazis in the concentration camps. These people are closed up behind cement walls protecting their vulnerability, unable to admit their guilt. How can we work with these walls, help break them down. It is easier if they fall sick, have a serious accident. Sometimes the child in them rises up. If they commit a recognized crime and are put in jail where they can find a good therapist. If I were you, I would work out this question with prison psychologists they might have some answers. The difficulty is that we are all frightened of being seen as bad, guilty so we accuse the other. It is their fault. This is what we call projection. Sorry not to be clear, not to have clear answers. Your question is a vital one but I suppose I must begin by accepting that in some ways, in some situations I am guilty I need to admit it. To seek forgiveness. Tell me your ideas Peace to you. Love Jean

It was a thoughtful answer, but it sidestepped the fundamental issue Id raised of mens violence against women. Vaniers lens was psycho-spiritual. He seemed to have no notion of power or systems of oppression.

A few years later, I heard him in person at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Ottawa. Again he spoke eloquently to the deepest longings of the human heart. Vaniers work on the inclusion of outsiders, people marginalized by virtue of disability or difference, is outstanding. But like most thoughtful men, he neglects to consider women. I wrote to him again, asking him why he does not talk about the oppression of women and why he does not use his considerable power and influence to call out mens abuse of women.

Vanier responded.

My dear Donna,

You are quite right. I should talk more of the oppression of women, I have been wondering why I do not mention it more. I have no easy explanation except in my community here in Trosly there is a beautiful harmony amongst us all. There can also be some masculine blindness in me. Thank you for this. Thank you for asking the question. I liked your reflection about masculine sexuality and feminine sexuality I have still work to do. Peace, love to you. Jean

Spiritual leaders, most of whom are men, talk endlessly about peace and love. The more progressive among them may even speak about social justice and human rights. The problem is that their thinking and practice does not include women in any meaningful way. Their human rights do not extend to women.

Another letter from Jean Vanier to Donna F. Johnson.jpg

Is there a religious leader on Earth calling out mens abuse of womens bodies for their own pleasure and power? It is no accident that they are silent on this. Like 19th-century slave-holders, some men are safeguarding a way of life. They want power over women. They need women to hate ourselves in order to ensure our silence and cooperation.

A great moral leader like Jean Vanier could have made a massive difference for the worlds women through the simple act of calling out men on their misogyny. Alas, he too was invested in the power structure. Vanier colluded with other men through his silence, his actions and his denial.

This weekend, the last vestige of hope that good men will stand up for women was shattered. Masculine blindness is killing women. It is a reality that must be confronted. Let us not move too quickly to forgiveness.

Donna F. Johnson worked in an Ontario shelter for battered women from 1986 to 2002. She remains active in the struggle to end violence against women.

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Johnson: Moral blindness and the fall of Jean Vanier - Ottawa Citizen