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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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Cross-sectional images of retina from retinoschisin-deficient mice, untreated and treated with XLRS gene therapy.

NEI Human Gene Therapy Trial for Retinoschisis Underway

The National Eye Institute (NEI) recently launched the first-ever human gene therapy trial for the vision disorder X-linked retinoschisis (XLRS). Researchers are conducting the trial at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Research Center in...
Illustration showing the retina as seen through a dilated pupil.

Eylea outperforms other drugs for diabetic macular edema with moderate or worse vision loss

In an NIH-supported clinical trial comparing three drugs for diabetic macular edema (DME), Eylea (aflibercept) provided greater visual improvement, on average, than did Avastin (bevacizumab) or Lucentis (ranibizumab) when vision was 20/50 or worse.
If a study participant were instructed to pay attention to “scenes” and he was attending well, he would be shown the top image as a reward. As his attention lapsed, the middle and bottom images would be shown. The face in the photograph is that of the study’s first author, Megan deBettencourt, a doctoral candidate at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute.

Brain Training May Bolster Visual Attention

People are bad at staying focused. We’ve all had our minds wander when we try to concentrate on a task that requires paying close attention but isn’t all that engaging.
Degenerated RPE cells from mice with geographic atrophy are shown at left. Treating the mice with NRTIs protected the RPE cells. Photos courtesy of Jayakrishna Ambati, M.D.

HIV drugs show promise for “dry” AMD

A class of medications long used to curb HIV infection shows promise as a therapy for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), suggest findings from an NIH-funded study.
Clinical study of a new eye drop may offer hope to patients with dry eye. Photo courtesy of Patrick Walderzak.

NEI sets stage for new clinical trial to tackle dry eye

For some people it feels like a speck of sand in the eye, or stinging or burning that doesn’t go away. For others, dry eye disease (or simply dry eye) can become a chronic condition that leads to blurred vision or even vision loss if it goes untreated.
Retinal pigment epithelium derived from induced pluripotent stem cells. Photo credit: Dr. Kapil Bharti.

Gene profiling technique to accelerate stem cell therapies for eye diseases

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have developed a technique that will speed up the production of stem-cell derived tissues.
An occupational therapist at Thomas Jefferson University works with a patient who has low vision. Credit: Thomas Jefferson University.

Rehabilitation helps prevent depression from age-related vision loss

Depression is a common risk for people who have lost their vision from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), but a new study shows that a type of rehabilitation therapy can cut this risk in half.
NICU care providers take photos of a premature baby's retinas in the NEI-funded e-ROP study of telemedicine for retinopathy of prematurity. Photo credit: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Telemedicine catches blinding disease in premature babies

Telemedicine is an effective strategy to screen for the potentially blinding disease known as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), according to a study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI).
Chichilnisky and colleagues used an electrode array to record activity from retinal ganglion cells (yellow and blue) and feed it back to them, reproducing the cells' responses to visual stimulation. Credit: E.J. Chichilnisky, Stanford.

Making artificial vision look more natural

In laboratory tests, researchers have used electrical stimulation of retinal cells to produce the same patterns of activity that occur when the retina sees a moving object.
Individual cilia grow from the basal body of a cell with assistance from distal and subdistal appendages (Credit: Shobi Veleri, Ph.D., National Eye Institute)

NIH study reveals gene critical to the early development of cilia

Researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) have described the functions of a gene responsible for anchoring cilia — sensory hair-like extensions present on almost every cell of the body.

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