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NEI Research News

Thanks to the work of NEI scientists and grantees, we’re constantly learning new information about the causes and treatment of vision disorders. Get the latest updates about their work — along with other news about NEI.

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63 items
7 men look at the camera in a group portrait

NEI Researchers Awarded Grants by the Knights Templar Eye Foundation

The Knights Templar Eye Foundation has awarded two NEI scientists grants to research inherited retinal degenerations, diseases that can cause blindness in early childhood.
Microglia in retinal sections of a patient with retinitis pigmentosa

Immune System Can Slow Degenerative Eye Disease, NIH-led Mouse Study Shows

A new study shows that the complement system, part of the innate immune system, plays a protective role to slow retinal degeneration in a mouse model of retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited eye disease.
Grantee News

With Single Gene Insertion, Blind Mice Regain Sight

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, find that restoring opsins with gene therapy can make 'blind' cells light-sensitive; potential human treatment within three years.
Grantee News

Therapy Could Improve, Prolong Sight in Those Suffering Vision Loss

A new therapy developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, could help prolong useful vision and delay total blindness for people with retinitis pigmentosa.
Multiphoton images show the outer segments of cone and rod photoreceptor cells in 215-day retinal organoids. Immunostaining shows a marker for cones (green) and rods (red). The “A” view shows optical sections; “B” is a reconstructed three-dimensional view.

NEI Awards Prize for Progress Toward Developing Lab-Made Retinas

The National Eye Institute (NEI) awarded $25,000 to a team led by Wei Liu, Ph.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine, for demonstrating progress toward the development of a living model of the human retina...
Illustration of icosahedral virus capsid, containing circular AAV vector. Arrows point from green and blue colored regions of the vector to shRNA and rhodopsin protein, respectively.

Researchers find potential new gene therapy for blinding disease

Scientists funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) report a novel gene therapy that halts vision loss in a canine model of a blinding condition called autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP).
Artistic image shows Müller glia-derived rod photoreceptors.

NIH-funded researchers reverse congenital blindness in mice

Researchers funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) have reversed congenital blindness in mice by changing supportive cells in the retina called Müller glia into rod photoreceptors.

Immune cells in the retina can spontaneously regenerate

Immune cells called microglia can completely repopulate themselves in the retina after being nearly eliminated, according to a new study in mice from scientists at the National Eye Institute (NEI).
Image of a mouse retina

NIH scientists deploy CRISPR to preserve photoreceptors in mice

Silencing a gene called Nrl in mice prevents the loss of cells from degenerative diseases of the retina, according to a new study. The findings could lead to novel therapies for preventing vision loss from human diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa.
Xu Wang with Wai Wong in lab

Breast cancer drug dampens immune response, protecting light-sensing cells of the eye

The breast cancer drug tamoxifen appears to protect light-sensitive cells in the eye from degeneration, according to a new study in mice.