Diario Medico reports on progress in research by the BMF

In an extensive and interesting article, Diario Medico, Spain’s leading medical publication, has reported on the latest progress in research by the Barcelona Macula Foundation, the institution which pioneers the search for new treatments in combating blindness.

In an interview with its Director, Dr. Jordi Monés, Diario Médico reports on the Foundation’s principal lines of research, among which are two in the animal phase: one with stem cells in a model of geographic atrophy in pig, in collaboration with the Veterinary Faculty of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and another involving foetal tissue transplantation.

The publication also explains that “work is being conducted on studies with a micropulse laser to change the evolution of the earliest and the most evolved forms of atrophic AMD”. Dr. Monés says that, “this type of AMD (dry) is the ongoing epidemic now that wet AMD is controlled. Furthermore, it is underestimated because it leaves islets of good visual acuity and is deceptive: the patient may have visual acuity but very poor visual function”.

As well as dry AMD, the Foundation concentrates its research on other currently incurable eye conditions such as pigmentary retinosis or Stargardt’s Disease.