NEI Research News

During Low Vision Awareness Month, the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, is highlighting new technologies and tools in the works to help the 4.1 million Americans living with low vision or blindness.

NEI-funded researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have shown that vision loss associated with a form of retinitis pigmentosa can be slowed dramatically by reprogramming the metabolism of photoreceptors, or light sensors, in the retina.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a pathway involved in harming rods and cones and have found a way to halt that damage.

A pain medicine that potently activates a receptor vital to a healthy retina appears to help preserve vision in an animal model of severe retinal degeneration, NEI-funded scientists at Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University report.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania showed that in a form of canine blindness retinal cells continue to differentiate for a period of time early in a dog’s life before overwhelming cell death caused the retina to degenerate.

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and University of Iowa scientists have used a new gene-editing technology called CRISPR to repair a genetic mutation responsible for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an inherited condition.

Our eyes are especially demanding when it comes to energy: Along with our brain, they require a substantial amount of power to keep them functioning and healthy.

A new technique that has the potential to treat inherited diseases by removing genetic defects has been shown for the first time to hinder retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease with no known cure that can lead to blindness.

Retinal implants that deliver longer pulses of electrical current may noticeably improve image sharpness for individuals who have lost their sight due to retinitis pigmentosa, according to a new study.

Gene therapy preserved vision in a study involving dogs with naturally occurring, late-stage retinitis pigmentosa, according to research funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health.