Researchers are working on several fronts to combat color blindness, a genetic condition that primarily affects men, reducing color vision to as few as two colors. People with colorblindness typically have photopigments in their eyes that are less sensitive to certain colors and cannot translate those hues to the brain.
Husband-and-wife researchers Jay and Maureen Neitz of the University of Washington have used retinal surgery and gene therapy to treat color blindness in squirrel monkeys. Their method, which is being developed for humans as the result of a partnership with the company Adverum (formerly Avalanche Biotechnologies), replaces a defective gene with one that functions correctly.
Currently, there are no treatments available to help people with color blindness. Although some claim that spectacles can help, they have been tested in clinical trials, and no available data supports their use.
