Now, researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) have tested a new approach to tackling congenital cataracts, turning to existing stem cells to repair the patient lenses post-surgery, restoring vision.

Current treatments for patients with congenital cataracts – a leading cause of blindness in children – is to extract the clouded lens, and implant an artificial lens to take its place. That procedure can be be dangerous, incurring significant risk to the patient in the form of potential pathogen transmission and immune rejection.

The alternative treatment that the researchers are working on approaches the problem from a different angle, looking not to replace the lens, but instead to make use of the regenerative potential of stem cells already present.