Understanding night blindness and calcium

Congenital stationary night blindness, an inherited condition that affects one's ability to see in the dark, is caused by a mutation in a calcium channel protein that shuttles calcium into and out of cells. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have teased apart the molecular mechanism behind this mutation, uncovering a more general principle of how cells control calcium levels. The discovery, published in the Feb. 18 issue of Nature, could have implications for several other conditions, including neurodegenerative diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases.

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