{"id":3660,"date":"2025-06-24T11:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T18:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wrwofficial.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/24\/she-hoped-key-research-could-help-save-her-eyesight-then-the-trump-funding-cuts-came-shots\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T11:00:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T18:00:52","slug":"she-hoped-key-research-could-help-save-her-eyesight-then-the-trump-funding-cuts-came-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wrwofficial.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/24\/she-hoped-key-research-could-help-save-her-eyesight-then-the-trump-funding-cuts-came-shots\/","title":{"rendered":"She hoped key research could help save her eyesight. Then the Trump funding cuts came : Shots"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Jessica Chaikof was born with Usher 1F syndrome, which results in congenital deafness and eventual blindness.
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Craig LeMoult\/for NPR<\/p>\n

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Craig LeMoult\/for NPR<\/p>\n

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Jessica Chaikof and her older sister, Rachel, were both born deaf. At the time, the family didn’t know exactly why. The girls began using cochlear implants and carried on.<\/p>\n

“And so we pretty much lived our lives normally,” Chaikof says.<\/p>\n

But in 2006, when Chaikof was 11 years old, her older sister started having vision problems and was diagnosed with Usher syndrome Type 1F. It’s a rare genetic disorder that causes deafness at birth, and then, over time, blindness.<\/p>\n

“My mom didn’t want to scare me, but they knew if Rachel had it, I have to have it too because it’s genetic,” she recalls.<\/p>\n