The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently approved only the 2nd trial in the world that will involve using human embryonic stem cells in living patients.

The trial is to involved people with Stargardt’s macular dystrophy, a condition that affects the vision of sufferers, who will gradually become blind as their eyesight deteriorates.

Christopher Goodrich is one of those who hopes to sign up for the trial, which will involve having stem cells injected directly into the affected part of the eye.

“Glasses help very, very little,” Goodrich said in a telephone interview.

“What macular degeneration is, you know that that centre part of your eye that does all the fine tuning? The cells die. You know what a shotgun blast looks like? That is what I see. It’s all over the place. I might see something out of the corner of my eye and turn my head and then I can’t see it.”

Researchers hope that once the stem cells have been injected, they will start to reinstate the absent cells. The effects could even be seen almost immediately, according to Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, the company carrying out the trials.

He says that doctors involved in the test can look into the subject’s eyes and see if the cells are taking up their positions as hoped, in real time.

While Stargardts has an effect on only 30,000 to 50,000 Americans, ACT are hoping that a successful trial at this stage will mean they can try out their technique on the 30 million people who suffer from age-related macular degeneration which is the foremost source of blindness in people over the age of 60.