Blindness News and Research

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Healthy fruit-rich Mediterranean diet may help protect against macular degeneration

People who closely follow the Mediterranean diet - -especially by eating fruit -- may be more than a third less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness, according to a study presented today at AAO 2016, the 120th annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

17 Oct 2016

Mount Sinai researchers use OCT angiography to identify early stages of glaucoma

In a first of its kind study, Mount Sinai researchers are using optimal coherence tomography (OCT) angiography to look at the earliest stages of glaucoma and identify characteristic patterns of different forms of glaucoma based on their vascular patterns.

15 Oct 2016

Vula Mobile awarded inaugural Clearly Vision Prize for helping tackle global problem of poor vision

A revolutionary app connecting primary healthcare workers in remote areas with on-call specialists has been awarded the inaugural Clearly Vision Prize, a competition to accelerate the ventures tackling the number one unaddressed disability in the world – poor vision.

14 Oct 2016

Four CGIAR researchers win World Food Prize for improving nutrition and health

Four CGIAR scientists, Dr. Howarth Bouis (HarvestPlus), Dr. Jan Low (CIP), Maria Andrade (CIP), and Robert Mwanga (CIP) will be awarded the World Food Prize tonight for their combined success in improving nutrition and health through biofortified crops.

14 Oct 2016

Study offers promise for therapeutic management of fetal and congenital genetic diseases in utero

A breakthrough study by research teams at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and Oregon Health & Science University offers promise for therapeutic management of congenital diseases in utero using designer nucleotide sequences that can simply be injected into the fluid surrounding the developing fetus to potentially treat disabling-to-lethal genetic defects.

7 Oct 2016

UEF research shows retinal changes may be detected earlier than brain changes

Diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) may manifest as pathological changes in the retina of the eye.

3 Oct 2016

Difficulty to understand speech in noisy environments linked to hidden hearing loss in young adults

Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear have, for the first time, linked symptoms of difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments with evidence of cochlear synaptopathy, a condition known as "hidden hearing loss," in college-age human subjects with normal hearing sensitivity.

3 Oct 2016

Region of the Americas becomes first in world to eradicate measles

The Region of the Americas is the first in the world to have eliminated measles, a viral disease that can cause severe health problems, including pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and even death. This achievement culminates a 22-year effort involving mass vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella throughout the Americas.

30 Sep 2016

X-ray laser-based technology enables faster structural analysis of receptor proteins

An international team of scientists has learnt how to determine the spatial structure of a protein obtained with an X-ray laser using the sulfur atoms it contains. This development is the next stage in the project of a group led by Vadim Cherezov to create an effective method of studying receptor proteins.

30 Sep 2016

Researchers uncover key factor for promoting wound healing after corneal injuries

In cases of severe ocular trauma involving the cornea, wound healing occurs following intervention, but at the cost of opaque scar tissue formation and damaged vision. Recent research has shown that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) — which can differentiate into a variety of cells, including bone, cartilage, muscle and fat cells — are capable of returning clarity to scarred corneas; however, the mechanisms by which this happens remained a mystery — until now.

29 Sep 2016

Research findings offer promising treatment target for blinding diseases

New research published in Cell Reports identifies a potential treatment target for blinding diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and advanced dry age-related macular degeneration.

28 Sep 2016

Research shows degenerative diseases affecting the retina may be treatable with gene therapy

Researchers have demonstrated the ability to deliver a fully functional copy of the CLN3 gene to stem cells of patients with juvenile NCL, an inherited neurodegenerative disease in which a mutation in the CLN3 gene causes early-onset severe central vision loss.

26 Sep 2016

Smoke from indoor biomass fuel linked to COPD among rural women in Bangladesh

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of death in the world.

26 Sep 2016

Researchers receive grant to help develop stem cell therapy for glaucoma

Researchers from the University's Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease have been awarded a pump-priming grant to help develop a stem cell therapy for glaucoma.

23 Sep 2016

Color-deficiency or color-blindness?

Color blindness could be considered a bit of a misleading term, because there are very few people who can't see color at all. Most people have what we call color deficiency or color confusion, which means that they're not blind to color; they just see a reduced number of colors.

From Vision Express 22 Sep 2016

IU receives $1.9 million grant to investigate effects of congenital birth defects and age on the eye

A $1.9 million grant to Indiana University from the National Institutes of Health's National Eye Institute will advance basic research on the eye with applications to blindness caused by genetic disorders and aging.

20 Sep 2016

UAB experts seek to improve patient adherence recommendations for DR screenings

The prevalence of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in the United States is 9.3 percent and expected to increase, along with complications associated with diabetes that include diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults ages 20 to 74 in the United States.

19 Sep 2016

Researchers identify and treat new variant of antibiotic-resistant E. coli

Researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear have discovered a new mutation in a highly antibiotic-resistant strain of E. coli that resists clearance by the body's own immune system by inhibiting white blood cells that ordinarily kill and remove bacteria.

16 Sep 2016

Research findings hold promise for new therapies using proliferating cells to treat patients with FECD

Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear have, for the first time, identified rapidly proliferating cells (known as "neural crest-derived progenitor cells") in the corneal endothelium of specimens from normal corneas and from corneas with Fuchs' Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy (FECD), a condition in which the cells responsible for keeping the cornea clear die prematurely — often leading to blindness.

14 Sep 2016

New funding boosts diabetes research at University of Warwick

Researchers based in the area which suffers the highest rate of type 2 diabetes in Europe are to receive specialist equipment to help them fight the disease.