Experiments help reverse blindness

Scientists for the first time have used gene therapy to dramatically improve sight in people with a rare form of blindness, a development experts called a major advance for the experimental technique.

Some vision was restored in four of the six young people who got the treatment, teams of researchers in the United States and Britain reported on Sunday. Two of the volunteers who could only see hand motions were able to read a few lines of an eye chart within weeks.

"It's a phenomenal breakthrough," said Stephen Rose, chief research officer of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which helped pay for one study done at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.