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…
Bayer HealthCare has entered into a five-year collaboration agreement with The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, for the discovery and development of new therapies in ophthalmology targeting retinal diseases. Both the parties will jointly conduct research activities evaluating new targets and disease mechanisms, drug delivery technologies, and biomarkers for back-of-the-eye diseases with high unmet…
Research led by Nicolas Bazan, MD, PhD, Boyd Professor and Director of the LSU Health New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence, discovered a protein in the retina that is crucial for vision. The paper reports, for the first time, the key molecular mechanisms leading to visual degeneration and blindness. The research reveals events that may…
Spark Therapeutics Inc. hit a $1.2 billion valuation on the biotechnology firm’s first day on the market, reflecting growing investor enthusiasm for the once-beleaguered field of gene therapy, a field that has produced the first $1 million drug. The treatments focus on diseases where a single mutation in the genetic code is known to be…
For the first time, scientists have successfully transplanted light-detecting cells in the retina, grown from embryonic stem cells, into mice–a feat that could advance similar therapies using the artificial cells to treat degenerative eye diseases toward human trials. The animal transplant is a huge step for embryonic stem cell-based therapies, which have moved slowly to…
An overwhelming majority of people with age-related macular degeneration would rather test their vision with an iPad app than with traditional methods, a new study shows. “One of the major advantages of iPad testing is that patients are much more involved in their disease. They’re engaged,” Matthias Hartmann, MD, an ophthalmologist in private practice from…
An international research collaborative has identified 7 new genetic loci associated with an increased risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), bringing the total number of known AMD-susceptibility loci in the human genome to 19. Scientists from 18 research groups in 14 countries formed the consortium in the spring of 2010 with the goal of…
Diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, cone-rod dystrophy and Stargardt disease cause scotomas, or blind spots, which often have devastating effects on central vision. They cause gaps in a person’s visual field, making it difficult to see words in a book, images on a computer monitor or TV and the features of someone’s face. A…
A new study led by the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute reports that carnosic acid, found in the herb rosemary, actually promotes eye health. Led by Dr. Stuart A. Lipton, the team found that carnosic acid protects the retina from degeneration and toxicity in cell culture and in rodent models of light-induced retinal damage. This suggests…
According to the 2012 update of the “Vision Problems in the U.S.” report, a study released today by Prevent Blindness America and the National Eye Institute, the number of those ages 40 and older with vision impairment and blindness has increased 23 percent since the year 2000. In addition, a preliminary update to the 2007…