NEI Research News

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 from the University of Virginia suggests.

Researchers from the University of Buffalo have found new information about retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that begins in childhood with night blindness and loss of peripheral vision.

After a brain injury, cells that normally nourish nerves may actually kill them instead, a new NYU study in rodents finds. This “reactive” phenomenon may be the driving factor behind neurodegenerative diseases like glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness.

Researchers seeking to unravel the mysteries of how our amazingly complex brains do what they do, often start with the eye. The retina, the light-sensing tissue at the back of the eye has long been a model for scientists to explore how the brain works.

A new study from the George Washington University finds that in some parts of the developing brain, the inhibitory neurons cause excitation rather than suppression of brain activity, which could have implications for the treatment of neonatal seizures.

New NEI-supported research provides insight into the eye conditions associated with Marfan syndrome, where weakened zonule fibers cause vision problems.

Using human stem cell models, researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine found they could analyze deficits within cells damaged by glaucoma, with the potential to use this information to develop new strategies to slow the disease process.

Researchers who made a knock-in mouse-model of the genetic disorder retinitis pigmentosa 59, or RP59, found no retinal degeneration or thinning, calling into question the commonly accepted mechanism for RP59.

Caltech researchers have combined tools from machine learning and neuroscience to discover that the brain uses a mathematical system to organize visual objects according to their principal components. The work was published June 3 in Nature.

University of Maryland-led study identified the first gene responsible for eye loss in cavefish, revealing connection to a human vascular disease.