Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are using a novel approach to hopefully develop a new therapy for glaucoma, a complex disease that eventually leads to blindness, thanks to a new five-year, $2 million R01 grant from the National Eye Institute.
The project, led by Tasneem Sharma, Ph.D. is called “Therapeutic Intervention to Target Human Glaucoma Pathogenesis.” It focuses on providing a foundation for developing a new glaucoma therapeutic by testing human neurons and a regenerative therapy to rescue visual neurons from dying preclinically in human eyes under glaucoma conditions. This combination has never been used before.
Sharma hopes the results of this research project will lead to new clinical trials for glaucoma patients to study the effectiveness of potential new treatments.