Why eye can see

Jamie MacDonald is Scotland’s only blind comedian. 36 years old he is a regular on all the UK Stand up circuits. To date he has written and performed 4 one man shows at the Edinburgh Fringe including his 5* 2016 show ‘High Vis’. He’s also a voice over artist and has voiced ads for Tennent’s brewery and the Scottish Government. Before all this he was a corporate banker down in London for Bank of Scotland but he hated that! Come along and hear his story.

One of the first observations we make when seeing a new-born baby is how beautiful their eyes are. We may then comment on what, or how far, they can see; or “whose eyes” they have inherited. We rarely consider just how these amazing visual organs came into being. Yet for a small percentage of the population the exact opposite occurs. Ocular birth defects affect approximately 1 in 5000 UK new-borns and can profoundly affect their vision. What are the genes that guide the process? How do these genes function normally and what happens when they fail to work properly? Can we use this information to help clinical practice? Could we even repair or make new eyes?

We know from running up a flight of stairs how the body responds rapidly to a need for fresh oxygen. This is particularly true for the eye, which has the greatest demand for oxygen of all our organs. Medical conditions ranging from premature birth to diabetes can all cause disruption of the supply of oxygen, leading to sight-threatening disease if not treated at an early stage. Fortunately, the adaptation of special cameras, developed originally for spotting camouflaged military vehicles, offers the potential to detect the indicators of oxygen starvation at an early stage, allowing preventative treatment.