Michael Wade orchestrates funding to thank hospital

An insurance entrepreneur has set out to raise £400,000 for the development of a gene therapy treatment for a form of Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis, known as LCA4, a type of congenital blindness.

A statement from Moorfields Eye Hospital said Michael Wade wanted raise funds while fulfilling a lifetime's ambition to conduct an orchestra, for friends and family, taking place this evening.

He will contribute to a treatment to be developed at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

It will be led by Professor James Bainbridge, a consultant surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital and professor of retinal studies at University College London, who is working alongside Professor Robin Ali on a research programme to develop gene therapy for inherited eye disease.