Kanmin Xue from the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences' Clinical Ophthalmology Research Group won the award for a publication in Nature Medicine: Beneficial effects on vision in patients undergoing retinal gene therapy for choroideremia.
This paper provides the complete results of the world's first phase I/II study of retinal gene therapy for choroideremia, an important inherited cause of blindness. By demonstrating sustained preservation or improvement in visual acuity in the treated eyes over 2 to 5 years, the results led to the largest international multi-centre phase III trial of gene therapy to date, and helped to establish the protocols for evaluating changes in visual function and retinal anatomy in future retinal gene therapy trials.
The medal was presented at a ceremony at the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in London by The Master & Professor John Marshall (pictured with Kanmin above).
Kanmin Xue returns to the Department in January 2020 on a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Development Fellowship and will set up his own research group.