Bionic cat eyes may help restore sight in people

Gingersnap, a 4-year-old Abyssinian, rolled lazily on the examining table while Dr. Kristina Narfstrom rubbed the cat's cinnamon-colored head.

Then, using a special viewer, Narfstrom peered deep into Gingersnap's eyes to measure the 4-year-old cat's losing battle with a disorder that is slowly killing her retinas, the thin film at the back of the eyeball that makes sight possible.

"By the time she's 5, she'll probably be blind," said Narfstrom, a veterinary ophthalmologist at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Gingersnap's condition is similar to retinitis pigmentosa, an incurable genetic disease in humans that strikes one out of every 3,500...