HC Deb 24 May 1979 vol 967 cc178-9W
Mr. Craigen

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the extent of the support for research into retinitis pigmentosa that his Department is currently providing.

Mr. Macfarlane

The Medical Research Council is giving grant support, totalling £135,000, to three projects at the Institute of Ophthalmology for research into retinitis pigmentosa. They are a study of abnormal retinal physiology in patients with this condition; a related project on cilia as model photoreceptors in retinitis pigmentosa; and work on genetic and clinical aspects of retinitis pigmentosa with the aim of subdividing this group of disorders into individual disease states. The council's clinical and population cytogenetics unit in Edinburgh is engaged in a search for genetic markers for the condition, at an annual cost of approximately £39,000.