Dubai Dine Foresight event to raise funds to continue pioneering gene therapy trials

A portion of the funds raised during the Dine Foresight event, which will see approximately 80 establishments donate diners' bills to the charity, will go toward a retinal disease research project at Moorfields Eye Hospital London, the parent company of Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai.

In an experiment, announced at the beginning of May, researchers at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and the UCL Institute of Ophthamology announced they had reduced symptoms in a human volunteer by injecting genes into his eye.

The trial involved a condition called Leber's Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), which causes progressive deterioration in vision. Researchers injected genes beneath the retina using a harmless virus or 'vector' that can carry the gene into the cells. Previous laboratory work using dogs showed that the retinal deterioration was restored to the extent that they were able to walk through a maze without difficulty, which they could not do before the treatment.

Dr. Chris Canning, CEO and Medical Director of Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai, the first overseas branch of the 200-year old hospital and a sponsor of the Dine Foresight event, said: 'Between the research being conducted at Moorfields London and awareness-raising events such as Dine Foresight, we are likely to see major advances in the treatment previously blinding eye conditions.

'In the meantime, we can do a lot toward making life easier for people with visual impairment, and Moorfields Eye Hopspital Dubai is proud to support Foresight in their important work.'

Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai will open its doors to patients in the next week at the Al Razi Medical Complex in DHCC, and will provide daycase surgery and outpatient diagnostic and therapeutic services, including emergency care, for a variety of eye surgical and non-surgical medical conditions.