Charting Paths to Precision Eye Care: Part One
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), over 3 million people in the U.S. currently have glaucoma, and the disease costs the economy over $2 billion in losses in productivity losses and direct costs. Scientists are studying this disease to understand its causes and progression, as well as ways to detect it before symptoms […]
Screen Time—What’s Good. What’s Bad.
Screens are everywhere—from desktop and laptop computers to smartphones and tablets. Of course, spending too much time in front of a screen can lead to eye strain for adults. What about children and teens? Technology is second nature to them, and they spend a lot of time playing games on a tablet or scrolling through […]
The Science of Facial Recognition
Recognizing faces is a skill that humans and primates both have. When it comes to human infants, they tend to focus their gaze on faces. They do this before their eyes develop the ability to discern the features of a face and before the face-specific area of temporal cortex of the brain is fully developed. […]
Genetics & Their Effects on Eye Disease Part Two
What if it’s a modifier gene that causes problems with vision? What’s so troublesome about a modifier gene? It has a variant, such as a single nucleotide change, that differs from the common sequence. The variant doesn’t cause disease by itself, but it can influence the observable characteristics of a genetic disease through mechanisms that […]
Genetics & Their Effects on Eye Disease Part One
When it comes to many diseases, particularly eye diseases, genetics plays a role in the how and when a specific disease develops. Of course, it isn’t as simple as having X gene and getting Y disease. Lifestyle factors can influence certain genes. Also, the presence of modifier genes—genes that are slightly different, such as a […]
Small Molecules, Biosimilars & Therapeutic Targets
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects 11 million people in the U.S. It occurs when aging causes damage to the macula, the part of the eye that controls straight-ahead vision. There are two types: dry AMD and wet AMD. Dry AMD is when the macula gets thinner with age, while wet AMD occurs when abnormal blood […]
Targeting and Repairing Genes: Breakthroughs in Treating Eye Diseases
Many times, the purpose of vision research is to identify genes that cause diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and Leber Congenital Amaurosis, and then either stop the gene from causing damage or fix the troublesome gene entirely. Two research projects are focused on just that and the results are promising. Scientists from the lab […]
Aqueous Humor and Nerve Degeneration Advances
In vision diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration, once functional vision is lost, there is no way to restore it. That’s why adults between the ages of 18 to 65 are advised to have yearly eye exams. These exams can detect not only changes in vision but the first signs of glaucoma, macular degeneration […]
Genes & Nanoparticles: Innovations in Treatment Approaches
Numerous vision diseases, such as glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, and, to a certain degree, diabetic retinopathy, have a genetic basis. Wouldn’t it be great to learn about the genetic makeup of these and other vision diseases so that treatments can start earlier, when they are most effective? Two research projects are studying both what is going […]
Bionic Vision: Sci-Fi to Reality
Science fiction provides some good examples of bionic vision. The main character in the 1970s television show, The Six Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin, had a bionic eye implanted, along with bionic limbs, after he was involved in a horrific crash of a test plane. This bionic eye had a zoom lens and could do […]