A Cure for the Colorblind: Roadmap to Gene Therapy

In 2009, with colorblindness cured in monkeys, the cure was in grasp, but someone fumbled it. 13 years later, we are struggling to make much progress. When are we gonna see the first colorblind cure?
Footnotes and Transcript:
chromaphobe.com/a-cure-for-th...
Glossary, including most of the technical terms in this video:
chromaphobe.com/words/
June 2022 Neitz Monkey Abstract:
iovs.arvojournals.org/article...
Dark Hallway by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/

[@OldboyWOW]

Im waiting 15 years already for that gene therapy. Its crazy how hard is for them to cure that... or they just dont want to. I've missed such wonduferul jobs which are well payed cuz of my lack.

[@ianonbass]

man this vid needs more views. crazy I played soccer and always had the worst time playing against a green shirt team while we wore red. it was horrible only finding out 5-7 years after.

[@SkeletonSSBM]

I've been wondering what happened to gene therapy for a long time. I heard about it, got really excited, and then forgot about it for about 2 years. Thanks for explaining!

[@CaribouOrange]

I had been wondering. Excellent video, thank you ^^

[@jumpander]

On the topic of neuroplasticity and colors: I've experimented with glasses that have one magenta colored right lense. This lense creates a new second narrowed green for my right eye. The combination of the normal color spectrum of my left eye and the modified one of my right eye let's me subjectively see specific secondary colors in greater detail (almost resembling new colors) with the post-processing help of my brain: a "grassy" green (a better lime-green) and a "fency" green (a better turquoiuse green), in addition to a "green" green (a more vivid green).* However, I had to learn this like a new skill and build it over at least a whole year. While I remember being able to see these new, more minute color differences in hindsigh, the first time I wore these glasses my brain was just overwhelmed with the new color input. In a way, I had to relearn colors and I still do. I had to learn to see colors not via cone signal combinations but by interpreting the 'color-overlap-value' of two differently colored input pictures. I've tested these one-magenta-lense glasses on at least 10 other people and all of them reported seeing (almost instantly or in a matter of minutes) new color differences they could not before. However, with varying degrees of comfort. Some instantly adjusted to the new color information and could immediately combine the two differently colored input images just fine, without any brain or eye hurt. But others got a headache really quick and stated to feel slightly, moderately or strongly uncomfortable. Some also reported that the different overlapping colors not really combine to form a single new color but switch back and forth between the two colors. But they also reported this got better the longer they wore the glasses (-> neuroplasticity). My hypothesis is that changes in color vision from either color filters or color gene therapy instantly have an impact on your brain, but interpreting and giving meaning to these new colors / color differences is the difficult part and the learning task for both you and your brain. *Footnote: The terms "grassy" and "fency" are inspired by Ágnes Holba's & B. Lukács's "ON TETRACHROMACY". You can search for this on google if interested.

[@Chromaphobe]

I love getting meaty comments as soon as a sit down on the train! With this kind of experimentation, I assume you are aware of the X-chrom and other related Monocular red-rose contact lenses? There is quite a bit of research out of the 80s that looked at their short & long term effects. Repurposing your "binocular disparity" from depth perception to color vision certainly requires a bit of Neuroplasticity, but I'd also argue waaaaay less than introducing a whole new color opponent channel. It's like daltonization filters... I had an interview this week with a PhD studying these "recolouring" filters and he had me try using windows 10's stock filters. They're almost absolutely useless by themselves, but switching it on and off DOES give some information about the color that I couldn't just get with the natural or recoloured image alone. For example, if the green-brown-red color got noticeably brighter with the protan filter, I knew it was red. It was definitely not intuitive and I had to "calculate" it in my head, but it WAS more information to sus out the colors. I imagine using the Monocular lenses START that way, where you manually use the discrepancy and train your critical brain to understand the color. After some time the Neuroplasticity catches up and you can do it intuitively. Whether that Neuroplasticity is in the lower order (V1/V2) or higher order (V3/V4 or higher) parts of your visual cortex (or even outside your visual cortex) is not determined by all those 80s studies since fMRI didn't exist back then... I have not read the Holba paper. Those descriptors sound... strange. Fency for green? No idea what that means! I'll look into it!

[@jumpander]

@@Chromaphobe You use a better terminology than me. It shows that you are a lot more knowledgable about these topics than I am. This is why I love watching your videos because I always learn new things I haven't thought of before. Also, the binocular disparity that is created by the one-mangenta-lenses glasses is like having the switch (of e.g. the daltonization /"recolouring" filters you mentioned) both on and off at the same time. The "Grassy" and "fency" terms make more sense after reading the paper. It would have been too long of an explanating for a youtube comment.

[@Chromaphobe]

Heh, Yeah, the real reason I made the glossary on my website is so I can keep track of these terms. I literally went to my website while I was typing that, went to X-chrom and was annoyed that I didn't mention the term there. Had to go check Wikipedia (where I HAD edited it in). Binocular discrepancy... Can't forget it...

[@JerryB843]

Still hoping for a cure! I found out that I was colorblind at the age of 20 (25 now) and I never knew it before... I applied to the police acedemy to follow my dream career of becoming a police officer. Only to get kicked out because I was unable to pass the isiharatests. It ruined my life and never got to find a job I realy liked. After years and years it still sticks to me.

[@Chromaphobe]

They didn't give you the option of taking the D15?

[@GreatCollapsingHrung]

My 5 year old son has red-green color blindness. Lately he’s shown a lot of talent for art. He draws things that amaze me. I really think he could make it his career. But I fear that he may get discouraged and give up on it because of how some people react to his color choices. He’s asked me on multiple occasions if color blindness ever goes away, or if it can be cured, and it breaks my heart. I want so much for there to be a cure. I’ve wondered if gene therapy would be able to cure it, and if so, how close we are to having it. Tonight, on a whim, I searched and found this video, which was both encouraging, and discouraging at the same time. Encouraging because it seems to be physiologically possible, but discouraging because it seems like it should have been available years ago but isn’t much of a priority for the medical community. I hope a cure becomes available soon.

[@Chromaphobe]

You hit the nail on the head. Encouraging and discouraging at the same time. With respect to art, there are so many avenues he can take his talent that really rely very little on color. If you go through the list of colorblind people on Wikipedia, there is an even split of people who were scared out of art completely, and those that were simply pushed into a colorless or color-agnostic medium: sculpture, etching, abstract, etc. Especially with digital art, there are so many ways a colorblind artist can check and correct their own work, colorblindness doesn't really make anything impossible, it just requires extra attention to detail. He may not be the next Robert Batemen, but many believe Van Gogh to have been colorblind and his portfolio has done just fine...

[@bpark10001]

While you are waiting for the genetic treatment, get him some Enchroma glasses. If his red-green color blindness is of the -anomaly type & not the -opia type, he may have slight, or dramatic improvement. Have him take test on Enchroma site to determine type. But even if he has form that Enchroma doesn't help, do not despair. There are many colorblind artists. Some even claim that their "improved" color vision (with the glasses) interferes with their artistic skills. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHTWdnZ_nsZkec0

[@vanderkarl3927]

It boggles the mind that this channel has so little attention. My only guess is that the algorithm doesn't favor content that appeals primarily to the relatively small percentage of youtube viewers that are both colorblind and interested in educational content. This wouldn't be the first example of an ableistic bias in KZbin... I'm still mad about community captions being globally disabled.

[@dhawaldeshmukh5617]

is their any update regarding gene therepy? can we expect cure of colorblindness anytime soon!?

[@sumanpanja6379]

I am really waiting for the treatment. 😭😭

[@generrosity]

There is a video "I genetically engineered myself to fix lacrosse intolerance" on The Thought Emporium (also known as NileRed) where he used CRISPR gene therapy to detect the location of the gene and replace it. It's done via blood circulation, which might be ok getting through to the eyes? Certainly an interesting watch even if you take it no further

[@raghavendrachowdery8289]

Where is part 2?

[@Identyx]

Where is the second part ? I am exicted

[@Chromaphobe]

Honestly, I got 80% done with the script and realised that there was no way I could make it into an interesting video. It was waaaay too technical and going to run 40+ minutes. I may just spend another hour on the script to wrap it up and post it on my website as is. Or, I may cannibalize the content into other videos. I think I'll have a different video up in a few days though.

[@TheRowdyrobs]

Thank you thank you thank you for researching this topic. Like you I have been waiting for a cure after learning about the spider monkeys. I recently learned that psychedelic like mushrooms and lcd can “temporarily” cured colorblindness, better put, temporarily provide you with full color vision. It might have something to do with the neural plasticity topic you mentioned. I wonder if you’re willing to do a video on that?

[@Chromaphobe]

Bro, that is literally the topic of my most recent video!

[@TheRowdyrobs]

It happened to me, I was able to see new colors. But it only lasted for about a day at best. I wish there was a permanent cure

[@Riaz-exe]

As someone with normal color vision im so grateful so see normal one day if you guys ever get a cure trust me youre in for a real treat ❤❤

[@dskfjsd]

Olá! Meu filho foi diagnosticado com acromatopsia e estamos aguardando para fazer o teste genético para saber em qual gene é a falha. Somos do Brasil. Sabe dizer se está havendo terapia genética nos Estados Unidos para este problema?

[@Chromaphobe]

clinicaltrials.gov/search?cond=Achromatopsia

[@willguggn2]

... just a bit of engagement for the algorithm. :)

[@Chromaphobe]

Engagement is addictive!

[@discod8887]

Hey, I have a question here. You know how some people are "tetrachromats", where they have 4 colour cones? Is it possible to have "Anomalous tetrachromacy" where you have 4 colour cones but 1 is slightly impaired? If so, would their colour vision be better or worse than an average trichromatic person?

[@Chromaphobe]

Hey, good question. "anomalous" doesn't really mean impaired, it just means different from the norm. It just so happens that every anomalous trichromacy in humans tends to be "worse" than the standard, otherwise it would evolve to be the dominant type of color vision. In this sense, tetrachromats wouldn't ever be called anomalous, because there's not really a "normal" Tetrachromacy. Likewise, there isn't really an anomalous dichromacy, because there is not standard dichromacy. That said, there are only a few theories for how humans could be tetrachromats, and if they were actual functional tetrachromats, then they would always see more colors (in addition to more dimensions) than trichromat humans because they still have the 3 standard cones, plus a bonus cone. On the other hand, most vertebrates besides mammals ARE tetrachromats, so do have that 4D vision, but it's likely that most of them see far fewer colors than a normal Tetrachromat because each dimension is smaller. Think of it like a human trichromat has 100x100x100 = 1 million colors, while a tetrachromatic reptile may have 30x30x30x30=810,000 colors in their Gamut. Many animals just don't have the bandwidth in their brains to handle so much color.

[@discod8887]

@@Chromaphobe Ah ok. If someone hypothetically had "anomalous dichromacy", is it possible for them to think they had achromatopsia their whole life? Since functionally there is little difference between monochromacy and Anomalous dichromacy (if that even exists)

[@Chromaphobe]

So anomalous dichromacy probably not quite the right name, and nobody would call it that, but I did talk about it a bit on my video about "2 types of colorblindness", for lack of a better term. For example, someone with Tritanopia can also have the red-green opsins that lead to red green anomalous Trichromacy (like protanomaly). That COULD be anomalous dichromacy. And yeah, it would look like an even more muted Tritanopia. In most cases they'd still see color though, and I think the ability to differentiate even SOME color would be quite obvious to someone that they weren't monochromatic. BUT, just like anomalous trichromacy is a spectrum from normal Trichromacy to dichromacy, anomalous dichromacy would be the spectrum between standard Tritanopia and monochromacy (would be called red or green cone monochromacy in this case). So at some point when the red and green cones are almost overlapping, it can be functionally identical to monochromacy. But that is all entirely hypothetical. There are no cases of red cone monochromacy in the literature, despite being theoretically possible.

[@shadowshibe5962]

I have a friend who I believe is an anomalous tetrachromat. Her 4th receptor is closer to red than it is green, so while she has far superior color vision to us trichromats, she suffers from migraines from there being too much of an overlap in her red and yellow receptors.

[@violetcoull6541]

​@@ChromaphobeAre there any tools I could use to simulate this? If we took coblis for example, could putting on tritanopia and then add protanomaly work? Or would it be too basic?

[@guiorgy]

Wouldn't genetically modifying the sperm and removing the recessive CVD genes be easier? If successful, it would also mean no more CVD in the following generations.

[@Chromaphobe]

Easier, maybe. More effective yes. Anyway, it would be the egg that you would need to modify, not the sperm. Actually, just waiting til they've hooked up and you have a zygote would be the most convenient. However, still a bad idea and I address this in the first footnote for this video on my website: chromaphobe.com/a-cure-for-the-colorblind-roadmap-to-gene-therapy/ Essentially, genetically modifying an organ that CANNOT be passed down to your children is actually HIGHLY desired. Germline engineering (such as genetically modifying a human zygote) has only happened once (I believe) and is actually banned in most countries. Genetically modifying humans PERMANENTLY opens up all sorts of terrifying ethical dillemas. Here's the wikipedia article that discusses it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_germline_engineering

[@guiorgy]

@@Chromaphobe I know that it would be ethically problematic, not to mention that you'd need to be damn sure nothing went wrong. But just theoretically if we could, I think it would be easier (on the patient) since you could perform that in a laboratory on the sperm and then use it to artificially germinate the egg with the modified sperm, or at least that was my thought. I do hope we can get there one day, though that's most definitely a long way away.

[@mikesully110]

@@guiorgy How would that help a currently colour blind individual though? If I'm colour blind, modifying one of my sperm or the mothers' egg cell, although a good thing to do for my future son or daughter, it's not going to help me to see more colours? what if you didn't want kids in the first place?

[@tonystorcke]

Blame the FDA.

[@ShallaBal82]

I'm surprised that the comments here all indicate that a "cure" would be something people would want. My dad is colour blind and he only found out as an adult when he tried to get hired on at CN Rail. From there, he stopped doing art because he thought it fruitless because he couldn't see colour like other people. Now my own son is colour blind, and my husband and I hope he doesn't see it as a hindrance of any kind. Using apps like CV Simulator, we now see not only how our son sees but also how my dad sees, and I can't believe he, or anyone, would give up art because of colour blindness. I'd love to see my dad's or my son's interpretation of a sunset or a rainbow or ANYTHING - it would make for the coolest art ever. I hope people with colour blindness stop seeing it as something they need to correct - only 300 million people the world over have colour blindness, and if you narrowed it down into the different types, that means that only a fraction of the world sees it like you do. That seems cool to me, not something to correct.

[@Chromaphobe]

It's a fear of missing out. I wouldn't be much interested in a cure. It's become a big part of my identity, but I definitely understand those that treat it like a deficiency.

[@aki_times_ten]

because it would be defying Allah's order. besides it could have drastic consequences. dont flipping play god