”Retinitis pigmentosa, commonly known as night blindness, has a group prevalence of about 1/4000 in China and was once known to the world as an incurable disease of ophthalmology, but with the current means of research, this famous and difficult disease is gradually unveiling its mystery to us …… ” Aunt Ding, who lives in Jiangdu City, Jiangsu Province, held a quiet-looking girl to the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Hospital to seek help from the ophthalmologists. Auntie Ding pointed to the girl beside her in tears: “daughter born deaf, not active since childhood, we are too careless, the child grew to 18 years old, I realized that at night with her hand in front of her eyes, she did not respond, when it is dark like a sparrow can not find the direction …… Now the child Now that the child is married and wants to have a baby, but I’m really afraid that she will give birth to a child who also has “night blindness” and is ridiculed by others ……” said the heartbroken mother, who was sobbing uncontrollably. The mother has night blindness, the child born will also have night blindness? The reporter interviewed Professor Zhao Chen, who specializes in hereditary eye disease research, on this topic. Professor Zhao told reporters that with the existing research tools, his team has been able to find the mutated gene for 40% – 50% of patients with retinitis pigmentosa, and prenatal diagnosis of “night blindness” is just around the corner. The research center will first extract the peripheral blood of patients with night blindness, extract the DNA, and select a certain number of genes that can cause night blindness by using “next-generation deep sequencing combined with gene capture chip technology” for direct sequencing. The sequencing can find the genetic defect for a certain percentage of patients. If the DNA in the amniotic fluid is found to carry the gene, we predict that there is a 90% or greater chance that the child will be born with the disease. Patients can decide whether they want to have children based on the results of the prenatal diagnosis. Professor Zhao said in an interview, “The current research on hereditary eye diseases mainly involves retinal diseases, cataracts, extraocular muscle diseases, and juvenile glaucoma. Among them, hereditary retinal diseases are the most important blindness-causing diseases. Hereditary retinal diseases tend to be highly prevalent in remote areas with closed information traffic, low population mobility, and backward economic conditions. Forty to 50 percent of the cases of retinitis pigmentosa in the research center come from the Taihang Mountains in Henan Province. These patients usually live in places where there is not even a decent road, so it can be said that “there is no way out, no way in”; and people’s misconceptions about hereditary eye diseases are the biggest difficulties we encountered in our research work. Most doctors and patients often believe that these diseases are incurable and often choose to give up treatment.” It is reported that Zhao Chen is a senior scientist in the Department of Ophthalmology and Genetics at Stanford University and a recipient of the 2011 Global Award for Outstanding Young Scientists in Ophthalmology and Vision Research, and is now a full professor and chief physician in the Department of Ophthalmology at Jiangsu Provincial People’s Hospital, leading his team to specialize in research on hereditary eye diseases. Professor Zhao hopes that patients who have a clear family history of hereditary eye disease or who have been diagnosed with hereditary retinopathy by local doctors will come forward to the Research Center of the Ophthalmology Department of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Hospital. The research center will give a series of clinical examinations to patients for free, screen them for genetic defects and provide directions and advice for treatment.