SUCCESS - WE'VE DONE IT!!  The Clinical Ophthalmology Research Group at the University of Oxford would like to thank all its generous benefactors for assisting us in raising funds for an OCT operating microscope for the Oxford Eye Hospital. The OCT microscope will be used in forthcoming clinical trials of exciting new gene therapies for treatment of patients suffering from incurable eye diseases. OCT microscopes have a lot of potential in this area as the subretinal delivery of the gene therapy vector is a particularly delicate surgical procedure which involves preliminary detachment of the retina. Currently this is performed through conventional operating microscopes with the surgeon judging by eye whether or not the subretinal space has been opened up for administration of the vector. This is highly complex surgery in patients with end-stage retinal degeneration in whom the tissue planes are hard to determine. OCT operating microscopes have an integrated scanner providing a head-up display of a cross section of the retina in real time for the surgeon, and therefore will permit gene therapy vectors to be delivered more safely and more accurately.