NEI Research News

Erik Weihenmayer has climbed mountains around the world - the highest peaks, in fact, on every continent. One afternoon a few years ago, however, a climbing wall in a local gym served as the setting of a most memorable journey.

A compact fiber-optic probe developed for the space program has now proven valuable for patients in the clinic as the first non-invasive early detection device for cataracts, the leading cause of vision loss worldwide.

Millions of light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors fill the delicate tissue in the eye known as the retina. These cells include rods that provide night vision and cones that detect color.

In advance of NEI director Dr. Paul A. Sieving’s recent trip to China, a poster at Tianjin Eye Hospital promoted one of his lectures.

The National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announces the release of more than 10 years of data collected during the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS).

Scientists have found a more effective treatment for a common childhood eye muscle coordination problem called convergence insufficiency (CI).

Three young adults with Leber Congenital Amaurosis-a severe degenerative disease of the retina caused by a mutation in the RPE65 gene-reported improvements in vision after undergoing a specialized gene transfer procedure.

A promising new drug therapy used to treat abnormal swelling in the eye-a condition called diabetic macular edema-proved less effective than traditional laser treatments in a study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the NIH.

Investigators reported in 1993 that the progressive course of retinal degeneration, as assessed by the electroretinogram (ERG), was slower on average among adults with retinitis pigmentosa.

Two groups of investigators have reported independently on their initial observations from Phase I clinical trials of gene transfer for Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) caused by mutations in the RPE65 gene.