CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genzyme, a Sanofi company (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY), today announced the establishment of a research collaboration with the University of Florida and the University of Pennsylvania to develop a gene therapy for the treatment of a rare genetic disease that causes childhood blindness. Leber congenital amaurosis type 1 (LCA-1) is usually diagnosed in children who are less than a year old, and patients remain severely visually impaired for the rest of their lives.
Genzyme is providing $900,000 in funding over three years to Dr. Shannon Boye, assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Florida, to fund her LCA-1 research. Dr. Boye’s research is focused on a gene called guanylate cyclase (GUCY2D) that is mutated in LCA-1 patients. The GUCY2D gene normally makes GC1, a protein expressed in photoreceptors, which are located in the retina of the eye and convert light into electrical signals that the brain interprets as vision. Genzyme’s funding supplements current funding from the Foundation Fighting Blindness.
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