[To carry out studies on treatment of hereditary retinal diseases with gene therapy in China].

Hereditary retinal diseases (HRD) are a group of both common and severe ocular hereditary diseases. HRD are a major cause of blindness. Human genetic resources in China are plentiful. Through the accomplishment of the human genome project and the widespread application of related genetic techniques, the methods for detecting the mutant genes of HRD has been established, and important findings in the treatment of HRD through gene therapy studies have been obtained. In the past ten years, HRD studies in China have gained significant progress in this field, including several pioneer results in the detection of autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa mutant gene. However, significant difference still exists in basic and clinical studies of HRD between the western countries and China. At present, HRD are transforming from "the incurable disease" to "the curable disease". Advancements in gene therapy studies are making the treatment of HRD possible, we should take advantage of these technological innovations to launch our own clinical trials using gene therapy in the treatment of HRD in Chinese patients as soon as possible.