![](https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/15101954/SEI_191182216.jpg?width=1200)
Glaucoma occurs when the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain, becomes damaged
Ian Miles / Alamy
The vision of mice with damaged optic nerves has been partly restored by generating new nerve cells in the eye to replace ones that died. The hope is this approach could help treat people with conditions that cause blindness by damaging the optic nerve, such as glaucoma.
“We can regenerate those cells,” says Biraj Mahato at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in California. But more studies in larger animals will have to be done before…