Scientists have been using a new form of gene therapy to treat a rare inherited eye condition which eventually causes severe tunnel vision.

Scientists have been using the new treatment on patients to try to halt further loss of sight. And they’ve been astonished to find that it has actually improved their vision.

Sophie Raworth presents BBC News at Ten reporting by medical editor Fergus Walsh.

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A team of researchers from Universidade Estadual Paulista, Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul and Projeto Dacnis, São Francisco Xavier and Ubatuba has discovered a new species of pumpkin toadlet. In their paper published on the open-access site PLOS ONE, the group describes their study of pumpkin toadlets in Brazil, how they found the new species and what sets it apart from other pumpkin toadlets.

Pumpkin toadlets are a group of related species of bright orange amphibians. They look like tiny frogs, and most are small enough to sit on a thumbnail—many of them are also poisonous. In this new effort, the researchers were studying pumpkin toadlets living in a heavily forested part of Brazil, just south of the Mantiqueira mountains, along its eastern coast—in the state of São Paulo. To date, several species have been identified. To learn more about them, the researchers traveled to the area multiple times between late 2017 and late 2019, collecting samples. The collecting was made easier through the use of a fluorescent light—some of the bones of the tiny creatures light up right through the skin. In all, the team collected 276 specimens which they took back to their lab for study. Each was given a DNA test to identify its species.

It took many months and tens of thousands of volunteers to gather the data showing that the current crop of COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.

But what if new vaccines are needed to deal with dangerous variants of the coronavirus? Waiting months is not an attractive option.

So researchers are trying to come up with tests that can be performed using a blood sample that will determine not only whether a vaccine will work but also for how long.

Pfizer pill to treat COVID symptoms could be ready by year’s end, CEO says.

An oral drug like the one Pfizer is developing could be taken at home and might keep people out of the hospital.

“Particular attention is on the oral because it provides several advantages,” Bourla said. “One of them is that you don’t need to go to the hospital to get the treatment, which is the case with all the injectables so far. You could get it at home, and that could be a game-changer.”

The drug might be effective against the emerging variants, he said. Pfizer is also working on an injectable anti-viral drug.