Newswise Focus Channel: NIH Eye Inst Grants

Researchers Unravel Why Episodes of Low Blood Sugar Worsen Eye Disease in People with Diabetes

Johns Hopkins Medicine — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 09:00:56 EST

People with diabetes who experience periods of low blood sugar -- a common occurrence in those new to blood sugar management -- are more likely to have worsening diabetic eye disease. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have linked such low blood sugar levels with a molecular pathway that is turned on in oxygen-starved cells in the eye.

3D map reveals DNA organization within human retina cells

NIH, National Eye Institute (NEI) — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 05:00:00 EST

National Eye Institute researchers mapped the organization of human retinal cell chromatin, the fibers that package 3 billion nucleotide-long DNA molecules into compact structures that fit into chromosomes within each cell's nucleus. The resulting comprehensive gene regulatory network provides insights into regulation of gene expression in general, and in retinal function, in both rare and common eye diseases. The study published in Nature Communications.

Black Patients Found Six Times More Likely to Have Advanced Vision Loss After Glaucoma Diagnosis Than White Patients

Mount Sinai Health System — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:00:00 EST

Black patients have a dramatically higher risk of advanced vision loss after a new diagnosis of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) when compared to white patients, according to a new study from New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE).

New Color-Coded Test Quickly Reveals If Medical Nanoparticles Deliver Their Payload

Johns Hopkins Medicine — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 14:00:48 EST

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have developed a color-coded test that quickly signals whether newly developed nanoparticles -- ultra small compartments designed to ferry medicines, vaccines and other therapies -- deliver their cargo into target cells. The new testing tool, engineered specifically to test nanoparticles, could advance the search for next-generation biological medicines.

Grants fund drug development for devastating tropical diseases

Washington University in St. Louis — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 12:05:57 EST

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received two grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) totaling more than $5.5 million to develop new treatments for two types of devastating parasitic infections common in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South America: river blindness and intestinal worm infections.

NIH study traces molecular link from gene to late-onset retinal degeneration

NIH, National Eye Institute (NEI) — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 05:00:00 EST

Scientists have discovered that gene therapy and the diabetes drug metformin may be potential treatments for late-onset retinal degeneration (L-ORD), a rare, blinding eye disease. Researchers from the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health generated a "disease-in-a-dish" model to study the disease. The findings are published in Communications Biology.

Audacious projects develop imaging technology to aid eye tissue regeneration

NIH, National Eye Institute (NEI) — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 14:15:22 EST

As regenerative therapies for blinding diseases move closer to clinical trials, the National Eye Institute's functional imaging consortium, a part of the NEI Audacious Goals Initiative (AGI), is pioneering noninvasive technologies to monitor the function of the retina's light-sensing neurons and their connections to the brain.

UIC researcher awarded $10.15M to develop antibody-based dry eye treatment

University of Illinois Chicago — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 12:35:23 EST

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have been awarded a five-year, $10.15 million grant to develop a broad-spectrum immunomodulatory eye drop.

Study suggests sugary diet endangers waste-eating protein crucial to cellular repair

Tufts University — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 09:20:30 EST

A high-sugar diet creates a 'double jeopardy' impact for a protein crucial to cellular housekeeping, a new study suggests. The protein offsets cell damage from sugar, but too much sugar renders it ineffective. The results may offer insight for reducing age-related degenerative disease.

Scientists Reverse Age-Related Vision Loss, Eye Damage From Glaucoma in Mice

Massachusetts Eye and Ear — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 11:00:00 EST

Proof-of-concept study represents first successful attempt to reverse the aging clock in animals through epigenetic reprogramming.

Quantum Tunneling Pushes the Limits of Self-Powered Sensors

Washington University in St. Louis — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 16:55:26 EST

Shantanu Chakrabartty's laboratory has been working to create sensors that can run on the least amount of energy. His lab has been so successful at building smaller and more efficient sensors, that they've run into a roadblock in the form of a fundamental law of physics.Sometimes, however, when you hit what appears to be an impenetrable roadblock, you just have to turn to quantum physics and tunnel through it.

FAU Researchers Receive $1.3 Million NIH Grant for Stem Cell Research

Florida Atlantic University — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 08:30:08 EST

The NIH grant will enable FAU scientists to identify the gene regulation pathways activated to program immature stem-like cells of the eye lens to attain their mature form and transparent function. The research team plans to explore the genetic and cellular mechanisms controlling developmental DNA conformational changes and will identify the transcription factors needed for eye lens formation.

World's First 'Pathoconnectome' Could Point Toward New Treatments for Neurodegenerative Diseases

University of Utah Health — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 16:50:42 EST

Scientists from the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah have achieved another first in the field of connectomics, which studies the synaptic connections between neurons. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded lab has produced the first pathoconnectome, showing how eye disease alters retinal circuitry.

Mass Eye and Ear Doctors Collaborate with Dana-Farber to Rebuild Damaged Corneas Using Patients' Own Stem Cells for First Time in United States

Massachusetts Eye and Ear — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 08:00:00 EST

Surgeons at Mass Eye and Ear have replaced the ocular surface of four patients who each experienced chemical burns to one eye by using their own stem cells taken from the other healthy eye, in a technique known as "cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell transplantation" (CALEC). These four cases, all part of an ongoing clinical trial supported by the National Eye Institute of the NIH, represent the first procedures of their kind to occur in the United States.

Multifocal contact lenses slow myopia progression in children

NIH, National Eye Institute (NEI) — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 11:00:00 EST

Children wearing multifocal contact lenses had slower progression of their myopia, according to results from a clinical trial funded by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. The findings support an option for controlling the condition, also called nearsightedness, which increases the risk of cataracts, glaucoma and retinal detachment later in life. Investigators of the Bifocal Lenses In Nearsighted Kids (BLINK) Study published the results August 11 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Vision loss in children whose eyesight may be 20/20 requires new diagnostic and teaching strategies

NIH, National Eye Institute (NEI) — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 11:20:22 EST

Cerebral (cortical) visual impairment (CVI) is a condition that interferes with the ability of the brain to process information from the eyes, and it has become a leading cause of visual impairment in the U.S.

Exercise can slow or prevent vision loss, study finds

University of Virginia Health System — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 09:45:53 EST

Exercise can slow or prevent the development of macular degeneration and may benefit other common causes of vision loss, such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, new research suggests.

Very low-dose Avastin effective for preventing blindness in preterm infants

NIH, National Eye Institute (NEI) — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 11:00:00 EST

Babies born prematurely who require treatment to prevent blindness from retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) could be treated with a dose of Avastin (bevacizumab) that is a fraction of the dose commonly used for ROP currently. Results from the dose-finding study were published April 23 in JAMA Ophthalmology. The study was conducted by the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group (PEDIG) and supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

NEI researchers link age-related DNA modifications to susceptibility to eye disease

NIH, National Eye Institute (NEI) — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 12:05:34 EST

National Eye Institute (NEI) researchers profiling epigenomic changes in light-sensing mouse photoreceptors have a clearer picture of how age-related eye diseases may be linked to age-related changes in the regulation of gene expression. The findings, published online April 21 in Cell Reports, suggest that the epigenome could be targeted as a therapeutic strategy to prevent leading causes of vision loss, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

'Primitive' Stem Cells Shown to Regenerate Blood Vessels in The Eye

Johns Hopkins Medicine — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 09:00:31 EST

Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists say they have successfully turned back the biological hands of time, coaxing adult human cells in the laboratory to revert to a primitive state, and unlocking their potential to replace and repair damage to blood vessels in the retina caused by diabetes. The findings from this experimental study, they say, advance regenerative medicine techniques aimed at reversing the course of diabetic retinopathy and other blinding eye diseases.