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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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Grantee News

Before Retinal Cells Die, They Regenerate, Penn Vet Blindness Study Finds

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.
Scientists are designing an accommodating contact lens for presbyopia, a condition that tends to occur in one’s forties when a stiffening of the eye’s lens makes it difficult to focus on close objects. Many of the components for the contact lens – the sensors, electronics, solar cells – would be embedded along the edge of a flexible material. Credit: Hongrui Jiang, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Fish and Insects Guide Design for Future Contact Lenses

Making the most of the low light in the muddy rivers where it swims, the elephant nose fish survives by being able to spot predators amongst the muck with a uniquely shaped retina, the part of the eye that captures light.
Grantee News

Discovery Identifies New RX Target for Age-related Macular Degeneration & Alzheimer's

Researchers at LSU Health New Orleans have shown that a protein critical to the body’s ability to remove waste products from the brain and retina is diminished in age-related macular degeneration.
Butler working in the cage wash area.

NEI Employment Program for People with Intellectual Disabilities Celebrates 10 Years

Andrew Butler may be one of the hardest working people at NIH. He has to be, because he works at the NIH Central Animal Facility—home to the many rodents and other laboratory animals that are a vital part of NIH research.
Patient undergoes and eye exam. Courtesy National Eye Institute.

Eylea Outperforms Avastin for Diabetic Macular Edema with Moderate or Worse Vision Loss

A two-year clinical trial that compared three drugs for diabetic macular edema (DME) found that gains in vision were greater for participants receiving the drug Eylea (aflibercept) than for those receiving Avastin (bevacizumab).
Grantee News

Shedding Light on Inflammation

Researchers from the Harvard Medical School Department of Ophthalmology and the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass. Eye and Ear have gained new insight into how a noninflammatory state is maintained in the body.
Grantee News

The Brain’s Gardeners: Immune Cells ‘Prune’ Connections Between Neurons

A new study by at the University of Rochester shows that cells normally associated with protecting the brain from infection and injury also play an important role in rewiring the connections between nerve cells.
Grantee News

A day in the life of a synapse reveals new facets of the adult brain

A new study, funded in part by NEI, sheds light on the innate plasticity of the adult brain at its most fundamental level — the synapse.
Grantee News

Ambati Laboratory Discovers New Antibody Function

An NEI-funded researcher at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine discovered with an international team a previously unrecognized function for antibodies.
Grantee News

CRISPR Used to Repair Blindness-causing Genetic Defect in Patient-derived Stem Cells

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.