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Check this page often to learn about events at Boys Town National Research Hospital, scientific studies underway in our laboratories, and advances in diagnosis and treatment in our clinics.

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Boys Town National Research Hospital Presents Emerging Medical Therapies for Deaf/Blindness

William J. Kimberling, Ph.D., Director of the Center for the Study and Treatment of Usher Syndrome, will be the keynote speaker at the annual Deafblind International World Conference. The conference will be held September 25-30, 2007 in Perth, Western Australia.

Dr. Kimberling will present on the emerging medical therapies for deaf/blindness, including the advanced studies on vitamin A and antioxidants, which may play a role in delaying blindness in inherited diseases and retinal implants, which are microchips implanted on the surface or just behind the retina to help restore vision.

 “Perhaps the most significant benefit lies in the potential for gene therapy,” says Dr. Kimberling. “We can now sort out the different genes and look at how each one responds to each treatment.”

Gene replacement therapy basically is a procedure where missing genetic information is replaced with the correct information, in the form of the missing DNA. Boys Town National Research Hospital has identified 4 of the 9 genes linked with the disorder and is among several laboratories currently working on different forms of therapy for the Usher Syndromes.

Usher Syndrome is a genetic disorder that is the major cause of deaf/blindness in the Americas, Europe and Australia.  New studies done by Boys Town National Research Hospital in collaboration with the University of Iowa Medical School suggest that the real frequency is at least 1 in 10,000 and perhaps as high as 1 in 5,000.  Usher Syndrome appears to be responsible for 10 to 15% of all children with educationally significant hearing loss.  “This puts its frequency in the same ballpark as muscular dystrophy and certainly far more frequent than better known disorders like Huntington’s and Lou Gerhig’s diseases,” says Dr. Kimberling.