Seeing The Problem.
Millions of Americans are blind or severely visually impaired. Majority of diseases causing blindness in developed countries are affecting the retina. Among the most common of retinal diseases are Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) and Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). In most cases there is no treatment and patients suffering from these diseases can’t live independently or work. Vinberg laboratory is using latest technology and experimental approaches to understand how light signaling in the retina is affected in AMD, DR and RP. This understanding is critical for developing new treatments to cure or slow-down visual impairment/blindness. We use both animal models of disease as well as human eye tissue from healthy as well as AMD- and DR-affected donors. We have established unique collaborations with Utah Lions Eye Bank, San Diego Eye Bank and Life Sharing to get access to human donor eyes within 0.5 – 4 hours postmortem. These tissues allow us to study functional aspects of the human fovea and macula.
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Image shows how someone with advanced AMD would see the world around him/her.
Photo credit: scEYEnce