Blindness News and Research

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Photoreceptors possess internal recycling system to preserve vision

For decades, scientists believed that photoreceptors in the retina relied primarily on neighboring support cells, known as the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), to remove waste. While the RPE is still responsible for clearing away the worn-out tips of photoreceptors each day, new findings from the University of Oklahoma reveal that photoreceptors also perform much of their own internal housekeeping.

29 Jul 2026

Plasma exchange improves recovery in rare inflammatory nerve disease

Plasma exchange can help treat people with a rare inflammatory disease that can cause blindness, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published on July 22, 2026, in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

22 Jul 2026

Salk neuroscientists identify traveling brain waves as a computational engine

Your brain has something surprising in common with the ocean: waves! Electrical activity washes over the brain's surface, creating what are called traveling brain waves or neural traveling waves.

21 Jul 2026

Spring clock change increases retinal vascular disease risk, study finds

For the first time, Northwestern Medicine scientists have detailed how the semiannual clock changes impact a person's risk of developing retinal vascular disease, a group of disorders that affect blood vessels in the retina and can lead to vision loss.

20 Jul 2026

Study identifies new waste clearance system in the eye

Many of the world's leading causes of irreversible blindness, including glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, share a common problem: the buildup of fluid, waste and inflammatory debris in the back of the eye.

17 Jul 2026

NIH grant supports AI development for glaucoma prognosis and care

The National Eye Institute (NEI) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded Mingquan Lin, PhD, an assistant professor in the Division of Computational Health Sciences at the University of Minnesota Medical School, a 5-year, $3.7 million grant for his research on Developing Robust Multimodal AI for Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma Prognosis.

17 Jul 2026

Walking protein structure explains how cells activate molecular motors

A nerve cell resembles a vast tree with branches that communicate with thousands of other cells. To function, it depends on a motor protein that walks on two legs, hauling urgent cargo from the center of the cell to the faraway tips of every branch.

15 Jul 2026

New photoswitchable drugs restore light perception in blind animals

Blinding diseases caused by the degeneration of photoreceptors, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP), affect 200 million people worldwide and represent the leading causes of visual impairment and blindness.

15 Jul 2026

WHO validates El Salvador for eliminating trachoma as public health problem

The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated El Salvador as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. Trachoma is the world's leading infectious cause of blindness.

14 Jul 2026

New framework aligns neural implants with user's needs

Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, PhD, JD, and Amanda R. Merner, PhD, of the Health Technology Performance Lab within the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute, are the authors of a paper published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, "Implantable Neuromodulation Devices in Psychiatry: Human Fidelity and Implementation Challenges."

8 Jul 2026

Blood biomarker may predict Alzheimer's progression differently in men

A blood test does not lie, exactly. It reports a number. The question raised by a new mini-review in Brain Medicine, which gathers and weighs a decade of scattered findings, is whether clinicians have been reading the same number in two different ways without realizing it.

30 Jun 2026

Lighting the way towards a new treatment for blindness

Adelaide University researchers have carried out the first in-human trial of a new type of treatment for a leading cause of blindness in working age adults, with promising results.

27 Jun 2026

Cone opsin structures offer insights into vision loss

The retina of the human eye contains six to seven million cone cells. These cells contain light-sensitive proteins known as cone opsins.

25 Jun 2026

Experts urge neglected tropical disease status for ocular toxoplasmosis

One third of the world's population is infected with the Toxoplasma parasite, which can cause ocular toxoplasmosis, an eye infection that can damage the retina and result in permanent vision loss.

25 Jun 2026

Universities and hospitals repurpose existing drugs at significantly lower costs

Universities and hospitals are repurposing existing drugs through late-stage trials with funded costs up to 90% lower than those taking place in the pharmaceutical industry.

16 Jun 2026

Doctors find unexpected regional differences in retinopathy of prematurity in Norway

It's a mystery. The eye disease known as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) can make infants permanently blind if they are not treated. But there are big differences between how often Norwegian hospitals actually provide this treatment.

16 Jun 2026

AI screening tool increases diabetic eye exam referrals for African Americans

In a study exploring how an AI-assisted diagnostic tool shaped care for underserved populations at multiple community-based primary care sites, investigators at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine found that African American patients with diabetes were more likely to receive a diabetic eye exam referral if screened by an AI tool.

9 Jun 2026

Novel artificial intelligence technology improves eye disease diagnosis

Non-invasive eye scans allow doctors a zoomed-in, three-dimensional look beneath the eye's surface without causing discomfort or pain to the patient.

5 Jun 2026

New ultrasound pacemaker design promises minimal recovery time for cardiac patients

MIT engineers have developed a noninvasive pacemaker that stimulates the heart using ultrasound. The design could one day provide a surgery-free alternative to traditional cardiac implants.

2 Jun 2026

PAHO and The Carter Center join hands on the elimination of onchocerciasis across the Americas

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and The Carter Center signed a Technical Cooperation Agreement today to strengthen collaboration on the elimination of onchocerciasis — also known as river blindness — and other communicable diseases in the Americas.

21 May 2026