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Stories of Hope

Follow A Race Against Blindness research funding, inherited retinal disease developments, community stories, grant announcements, and updates from families racing toward sight-saving treatments.

Grant history

Hope, Funded

Every dollar below has been paid out to research, made possible by the generosity of our sponsors and donors. Real people making an impact on saving children's eyesight.

$7.1M

total research funding, fully paid out · as of November 2026

  1. 2024

    $3M awarded

    October
    $1M
    December
    $2M — announced Feb 2025

    To fund the preclinical development and regulatory preparation of AXV-101, a gene therapy for Bardet-Biedl Syndrome type 1 (BBS1), advancing the program toward its first human clinical trial.

  2. 2025

    $2.1M awarded

    September
    $1M
    December
    $1.1M — announced Jan 2026

    To support clinical development of the first-in-human trial, including trial preparation and regulatory progress following clinical trial clearance, and to close the remaining funding gap required to launch the AXV-101 clinical trial, enabling the study to begin in early 2026.

  3. 2026

    $2M awarded

    June
    $1M
    November
    $1M

    Through two grants to the Foundation Fighting Blindness, to fund gene-agnostic research: in June, the Gund Vision Fund (formerly the RD Fund) and early-stage gene therapy delivery research with Dr. Thomas Mendel; in November, the Gund Vision Fund and regenerative research with Dr. Jin Woo Kim at KAIST. The Gund Foundation Challenge matched the $1,475,000 directed to the Fund dollar for dollar.

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