Eye News and Research

Latest Eye News and Research

Simple paper strip test can rapidly diagnose Ebola

When diagnosing a case of Ebola, time is of the essence. However, existing diagnostic tests take at least a day or two to yield results, preventing health care workers from quickly determining whether a patient needs immediate treatment and isolation.

25 Feb 2015

PCORI funds five patient-centered comparative effectiveness research studies

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Board of Governors today approved awards totaling more than $64 million to fund five large patient-centered comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies that will answer critical clinical questions about care for cancer, back pain, and stroke.

25 Feb 2015

Epigenome plays significant part in embryonic development

The early stages of embryonic development shape our cells and tissues for life. It is during this time that our newly formed cells are transformed into heart, skin, nerve or other cell types. Scientists are finding that this process is largely controlled not by the genome, but by the epigenome, chemical markers on DNA that tell cells when to turn genes on and off.

24 Feb 2015

Johns Hopkins researcher helps discover effectiveness of three drugs for treating patients with DME

A researcher from Johns Hopkins Medicine helped lead colleagues from across the country in a government-sponsored study by the Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network to discover that three drugs -- Eylea, Avastin and Lucentis -- used to treat diabetic macular edema are all effective. They also discovered that Eylea outperformed the other two drugs when vision loss was moderate to severe.

23 Feb 2015

UW ophthalmology researchers help show effectiveness of three drugs for treating DME

An ophthalmology research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison took part in a nationwide clinical trial comparing treatments for a form of diabetic eye disease. The study found that three commonly used drugs perform much the same for those with mild vision problems, but one medication performed better for those with more serious vision loss.

23 Feb 2015

Smartphones, tablets can do damage to overall health in unexpected ways

Despite the many benefits of having information at your fingertips, smartphones and tablets can do damage to your body and overall health in unexpected ways.

21 Feb 2015

Researchers reveal new understanding of pathobiology behind vestibular schwannoma

Researchers from the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories of Massachusetts Eye and Ear and the Harvard Medical School/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology have revealed new understanding of the pathobiology behind a head and neck tumor that may someday lead to new methods of targeted drug therapy.

21 Feb 2015

IUPUI's Jason Meyer awarded $1.8 million NIH grant to explore how glaucoma develops in stem cells

Jason Meyer, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology in the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, has received a National Institutes of Health grant to study how glaucoma develops in stem cells created from skin cells genetically predisposed to the disease.

20 Feb 2015

MIT chemical engineers develop new type of self-healing hydrogel

Scientists are interested in using gels to deliver drugs because they can be molded into specific shapes and designed to release their payload over a specified time period. However, current versions aren't always practical because must be implanted surgically.

20 Feb 2015

Clinical study comparing effectiveness of three standard treatments for DME published in NEJM

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that results from the National Institutes of Health-sponsored, Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network comparative effectiveness study in patients with Diabetic Macular Edema (Protocol T) were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and a corresponding slide set was posted online at DRCR.net.

20 Feb 2015

Broca's Area Is The Brain's Scriptwriter, Shaping Speech, Study Finds

What is happening in the brain of an actor reciting Hamlet's "to be or not to be" soliloquy or of the person next to you at lunch saying, "Please pass the salt"? For 150 years, scientists have known that a brain region called Broca's area plays a key role in speech production, but exactly what it does and how it does it have been a mystery.

19 Feb 2015

Ranibizumab drug reverses diabetes-related blindness

Ranibizumab, a prescription drug commonly used to treat age-related vision loss, also reverses vision loss caused by diabetes among Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites, according to a new study led by investigators from the University of Southern California Eye Institute.

19 Feb 2015

Sugar intake and tooth decay: an interview with Professor Nigel Pitts

Globally, dental caries (the technical term for tooth decay) is the most prevalent non-communicable disease, affecting 80% of the global population. Healthy teeth support overall well-being, while dental caries can contribute to high levels of pain and anxiety, as well as leading to other medical problems.

18 Feb 2015

Survey finds high levels of abuse, serious harm associated with human trafficking

The largest survey to date of the health of trafficking survivors has found high levels of abuse and serious harm associated with human trafficking. For the first time, the findings reveal severe mental and physical health problems experienced by men, women and children trafficked for forced labour and sexual exploitation in Southeast Asia.

18 Feb 2015

New discovery could lead to potential treatment for preventing blindness

Scientists have made a major new discovery detailing how areas of the brain responsible for vision could potentially adapt to injury or trauma and ultimately prevent blindness.

18 Feb 2015

Bacteria's DNA can pass trait to offspring in a way similar to parents' own DNA

It's a firmly established fact straight from Biology 101: Traits such as eye color and height are passed from one generation to the next through the parents' DNA.

17 Feb 2015

Neuroscientist to discuss teenage brain development at AAAS meeting in California

Teenage exploration and risk taking could be explained by dramatic changes in the brain that allow elaborate planning and are driven by the need for immediate reward, according to a University of Pittsburgh neuroscientist who will be talking about her research in a panel discussion and press briefing at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, Feb. 13 to 16, in San Jose, Calif.

17 Feb 2015

Adolescents experience excessive daytime sleepiness due to marijuana use

A study published recently by researchers from Nationwide Children's Hospital, found 10 percent of adolescents sent to a Sleep Center for evaluation of excessive daytime sleepiness with testing results consistent with narcolepsy had urine drug screens positive for marijuana, confounding the results.

16 Feb 2015

$Scleral imbrication shows promise in second surgery for refractory MHRD$

Scleral imbrication shows promise in second surgery for refractory MHRD

Combining vitrectomy and gas tamponade with sclera imbrication results in high retinal reattachment and macular hole closure rates among patients with refractory macular hole retinal detachment associated with high myopia, study findings indicate.

13 Feb 2015

Choroidal thickness reduced in diabetic macular oedema patients

Patients with diabetic macular oedema have smaller choroidal thickness measurements in affected and unaffected eyes compared with healthy individuals, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography imaging results reveal.

13 Feb 2015