1 day ago | Author: Dr Catherine Civil
Hot Off The Press
Good day all of you.
I found some more articles this month to tickle your interest.
Thanks to Retina International for their recent updates in global research.
Here are a few articles which they have highlighted and more summaries from elsewhere.
Here’s an interesting one….
The Hellenic Retina Society (Greece) has developed a program which teaches people, especially people with Visual impairments, how to use and develop their sense of smell via structured workshops. The course has been shown to help people who are visually impaired to navigate more easily through their lives…..
The LIGHTHOUSE Retinoschisis trial is being fast tracked
The LIGHTHOUSE gene therapy study for Retinoschisis has had permission from the FDA to FastTrack its clinical trials so that Phase 3 can be run straight after the phase 1/2 trial. This is hoped to expedite any rollout by at least 1.5 years.
An update on the NORTHSTAR Stargardts Vitamin A trial
The NORTHSTAR study for advanced Stargardt’s has dosed their first patient with their oral treatment Gildeuretinol (ALK-001) in a phase 3 trial. They are hoping to enrol around 230 participants over 11 countries with a duration of 2 years. ALK-001 is a new molecule designed to reduce the dimerization of Vitamin A. It has been well tolerated in the 4000 patients who have used it so far.
Gene therapy for LCA5 and updates on other LCA trials
A phase ½ gene therapy trial for LCA5 looks very promising with some patients who had been almost totally blind since birth being able to see and identify objects for the first time.
There are also brief summaries here of other ongoing gene therapy trials for LCA 4,5,6 and 10 and related conditions.
This is a lovely update of several ongoing trials and treatments for various subclasses of RP
Lighting the way towards a new treatment for blindness
This is about a “photo switch” which is potentially a new treatment for many types of IRDs
Professor Casson in Adelaide is progressing his trial from phase 1 to 2. This is the first clinical trial of a photo switch drug in humans. Unlike gene therapies, which target specific mutations, this photo switch could potentially be used across many different forms of retinal degeneration. So far, it has been well tolerated, with good outcomes.
All in all, there is a heap of progress going on, and more and more therapies are coming to market. It is such great news.
So, watch this space!
Till next time …
Cathy
Guest writer – Dr Catherine Civil
My name is Dr Catherine Civil. I have been associated with Retina Australia since the early 2000s. At that time, they were called WARPF, or the WA Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation. WARPF were raffling a car in a shopping centre, and it caught my eye because my dad and my uncle both had Retinitis Pigmentosa. Being a doctor and a parent, I had a particular interest and awareness, not just of the disease, but of the fact that there was a significant risk that I or my children or my relatives might have inherited it.
I turned up at an AGM and found myself on the Board and engaged in fundraising. I spent several years on the Board and met some wonderful people, and I was even Chairman for a couple of years. When I left, I started writing the “Hot off the Press” research update column for the newsletter.
I arrived from the UK in the early 1990s with my husband and twin baby girls to live in Perth for a year for a bit of sunshine and fun, and we find ourselves still having fun in WA 30 years later, and with a grown son as well.
https://retinaaustralia.com.au/world-research-summary-july-2026/
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