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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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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.
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

Researchers Uncover “Predictive Neuron Orchestra” Behind Looking and Reaching Movements

A new study from NYU enhances our understanding of the decision-making process, potentially offering insights into different forms of mental illness in which this dynamic is typically impaired.
Eye Exam

Researchers Discover Three Glaucoma-Related Genes

An analysis funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has identified three genes that contribute to the most common type of glaucoma.
The researchers developed a technique to study live cells in patches of retina, shown here by confocal microscopy. After 2 hours, the vast majority of the cells are alive (green); only a few cells at the perimeter have died (stained red with a dye).

Retinal Cells Work with Little Reserve Energy; May Explain Vulnerability to Eye Diseases

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.
The level of alpha-crystallin in the eye declines as cataract progresses. Left: The eye of a patient with an early cataract. Right: After 20 months, the same eye has a clinically significant cataract. During that period, the level of alpha-crystallin decreased by more than 94 percent.

Space Lab Technology May Help Researchers Detect Early Signs of Cataract

As we age, proteins in the lenses of our eyes start misbehaving: They unfold and congregate in clusters that block, scatter and distort light as it passes through the lens.