Back on /. (way back when!) I read an article about optic nerve regrowth in mice. IIRC a lattice was built, stem cells shot onto it, and some other stuff was done, and a new optic nerve ended up growing.

It involved removing the poor mouses existing eye, so there was no net gain (still had a mouse with only 1 working eye), but I was hopeful progress would be made so I could get myself a working optic nerve.

Nope. No progress in 20+ years. Someone got a paper published and went on and did something else.

It is a relatively uncommon problem, for ~98% of children with a problem with their optic nerve, patching the opposite eye works to force the optic nerve to grow. I'm in the (un)lucky 2%!

Admittedly not the worst rare health problem to have.