NEI Research News

UW Medicine scientists funded by NEI are discovering how the brain functions when figuring out shapes that are fully seen or partially covered. As the task becomes more difficult, a reasoning and sensory parts of the brain interact through signals.

Researchers at The Rockefeller University have begun to unravel the mystery of how the brain recognizes familiar faces. Their results are published in the journal Science.

Cells within an injured mouse eye can be coaxed into regenerating neurons and those new neurons appear to integrate themselves into the eye’s circuitry, new research shows.

NEI funded researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have identified an enzyme present in the cornea that trigger inflammation during–and even after–a herpes virus infection. Their results are published in the journal Cell Reports.

Bugs in your eyes may be a good thing. Resident microbes living on the eye are essential for immune responses that protect the eye from infection, new research shows.

A new NEI-funded study in Nature helps to explain how specialized retinal cells help stabilize vision by perceiving how their owner is moving.

Researchers have found that the brain makes new connections in those with early blindness (i.e. those born with or who have acquired profound blindness before the age of 3).

The formation of tumors in the eye can cause blindness. But, for some reason our corneas, the transparent layer that forms the front of our eyes, have a natural ability to prevent it.

Six biological pigments called rhodopsins play well-established roles in light-sensing in the fruit fly eye. Three of them also have light-independent roles in temperature sensation.

NEI funded research experts at the University of Southern California Roski Eye Institute found that visual impairment in preschool children will increase 26 percent affecting almost 220,000 children over the next 45 years.