A tale of a tiny virus and how it saved many lives
Patient 3, 18 years old, was crippled from birth with a disease known as retinal dystrophy. There was no known effective treatment that could help improve his condition, until recently when his doctor suggested an experimental surgery. They were going to remove some of the jelly-like liquid from his eye and inject a salty suspension under the retina. This suspension contained more than a billion particles of a genetically modified adeno-associated virus.