Building Sight

This magnified area of a mouse’s brain shows a severe injury. Scar tissue (highlighted in blue) surrounds the crushed optic nerve; the mouse is blind. Yet something remarkable is happening – nerve fibres are regenerating (shown in white) after researchers manipulated genes responsible for their growth. Job done – one might think – this mouse will see again! But laying new fibres is only half the story. These new fibres have no myelin, the waxy insulation needed to transmit signals from the eyes to the brain. Instead, the team injected the mouse with a drug called 4-AP, known to boost signals down poorly myelinated nerve fibres. Inspired by restoring the mouse’s sight, the team are working on a combination drug treatment that repeats this 'healing' process, and may one day be used to treat human nerve damage in conditions like glaucoma.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image by Fengfeng Bei, PhD
• F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Department of Neurology, Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
• Image copyright held by original authors
• Research published in Cell, January 2016