The Campaign for Mass Eye and Ear
Bold Science.
Life-Changing Cures.
Mass Eye and Ear is pleased to announce that our historic campaign, Bold Science. Life-Changing Cures., crossed the finish line on September 30, 2020 with a remarkable $252 million raised to accelerate cures for blindness, deafness, and diseases of the head and neck.
The campaign began in 2011 with the goal of investing in our people, programs, and state-of-the-art facilities to advance world-leading research to bring treatments to patients faster. Thanks to the tremendous generosity of our loyal friends, the campaign’s impact is both powerful and far-reaching, including the following highlights:
- Performed the first FDA-approved gene therapy surgery to restore vision to a 13-year old boy with hereditary blindness
- Discovered a drug to restore partial hearing in animal models and partnered with industry to launch human clinical trials
- Discovered that high dose statins can improve vision in dry age-related macular degeneration
- Identified a protective gene for Alzheimer’s disease
- Successfully cured a form of genetic hearing loss in a mouse model using CRISPR gene editing
- Uncovered a key mechanism that causes head and neck cancers to metastasize
- Performed the first corneal transplants grown from a patient’s own stem cells
- Developed several drugs to reconnect neurons in a mouse model of hidden hearing loss
- Launched an experimental vaccine for COVID-19
- Began leading a trial on CRISPR gene therapy for inherited blindness, the first in vivo treatment of its kind in the world
We owe an enormous thank you to the more than 42,000 donors who helped to make the campaign succeed. Your unwavering commitment to our mission changes lives every day and provides immense hope for the future. THANK YOU!
