Are Eye Transplants the Next Frontier for Vision Restoration

Curing blindness or restoring vision by eye transplant was once considered a long shot. But a new research effort led by several teams across the country, including investigators from Mass General Brigham, could help to make this lofty goal a reality for some patients.

In late 2024, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced several research teams to support work geared towards developing the first-ever complete eye transplantation procedure for its Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA) program.

In addition, THEA aims to develop new technologies or therapies to preserve or regrow nerves from the eye to the brain. These regenerative solutions could help prevent degenerative blindness and are a necessary step toward successful whole eye transplantation.

The beginning of a fruitful research collaboration