By combining data on optometry patient’s eyes with advanced computational methods, Indiana University researchers have created a virtual tissue model of diabetes in the eye. The results, reported in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, show precisely how a small protein that can both damage or grow blood vessels in the eye causes vision loss and…
Diabetic retinopathy — an eye condition that affects people with diabetes — is the fastest growing cause of blindness, with nearly 415 million diabetic patients at risk worldwide. The disease can be treated if detected early, but if not, it can lead to irreversible blindness. A few years ago, a Google research team began studying…
Pathologic changes of the retina caused by diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in working adults. Diabetic retinopathy has no known cure, treatment options are inadequate, and prevention strategies offer limited protection. In the first of its kind, a report in The American Journal of Pathology describes a potential new intraocular treatment based on…
Macular Degeneration is the leading cause of blindness and vision loss in people over 50 –and with life expectancies well into the 80s, it is estimated that 1 and 3 elderly individuals will have to deal with this degenerative disease. The remedy? Monthly injections (via needle) into the back of the eye, where the disease…
Patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) exhibit marked visual dysfunction and structural changes in both the inner and outer retinal layers, research findings indicate. Retinal function was evaluated using a number of tests, including contrast sensitivity, frequency doubling perimetry (FDP) and photostress testing. And semiautomatically segmented spectral-domain optical coherence tomography scans were used to quantify…
A research team led by scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the University of New Mexico School of Medicine has identified a small molecule that treats animal models of aged macular degeneration (AMD) and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) by preventing the overgrowth of blood vessels that are characteristic of these two retinal…
Retinal detachment can occur as a result of either blunt trauma or as a side effect of a variety of ophthalmic diseases, including diabetic retinopathy, ocular tumors, and age-related macular degeneration. There is a significant increase in the immune system’s ‘alternative complement pathway’ following retinal detachment, researchers report, adding that this pathway facilitated early photoreceptor…
Rafal Farjo, Ph.D. is chief operating officer of both eyecro and Charlesson, which are involved in research to advance treatments for eye disease such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and ocular inflammation. Far from resisting his family’s interest in all things STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — Farjo embraced it. “I loved it, and…
Taking the medication metformin hydrochloride was associated with reduced risk of developing the sight-threatening disease open-angle glaucoma in people with diabetes, according to a study published online by JAMA Ophthalmology. Medications that mimic caloric restriction such as metformin can reduce the risk of some late age-onset disease. It is unknown whether these caloric mimetic drugs…
Diabetes is a significant risk factor for developing eye diseases. The most common diabetic eye disease and a leading cause of blindness is diabetic retinopathy. Americans with diabetic retinopathy have diabetic macular edema (DME) in which fluid leaks into the macula, the area of the retina used when looking straight ahead. Over the past few…