Eye Health News and Research

Latest Eye Health News and Research

Lux Biosciences to present on LX211 at 2009 AAO annual conference

Lux Biosciences, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of therapies for serious ophthalmic diseases, today announced that the company’s experimental drug LX211 (LUVENIQ; oral voclosporin) will be featured in several presentations at the 2009 American Academy of Ophthalmology annual conference and American Uveitis Society meeting being held October 24-26 in San Francisco.

21 Oct 2009

Auxano point-of-care indicator system for dry eye syndrome

Auxano Diagnostics, LLC, a subsidiary of Auxano Biomedical, LLC, has announced the application of the company’s breakthrough wound care technology to the treatment of dry eye syndrome (DES) with the Auxano point-of-care indicator system.

21 Oct 2009

FDA grants Fast Track designation for MacuSight's Perceiva

MacuSight, a developer of innovative therapeutics for the treatment of severe ocular diseases and conditions, today announced that it has received Fast Track designation from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Perceiva, the company's proprietary ocular sirolimus product, for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME).

21 Oct 2009

Gamida Cell and Cellerixon collaborate to develop new line of cell therapeutics

Gamida Cell Ltd. and Cellerix, S.A. announced today that the companies are collaborating on a feasibility study to evaluate the added value of combining the proprietary technologies of each.

21 Oct 2009

First Edition: October 21, 2009

As Senate Democrats wrestle with a doctor payment bill separate from sweeping health care reform proposals, the public plan, public opinion and health care costs continue to be a Capitol Hill focus.

21 Oct 2009

Organic, zero calorie carbonated soft drink from Steaz

Steaz, the nation's premier brand of organic and fair-trade beverages, introduces Steaz Zero Calorie Sparkling Green Tea -- the first certified organic, all-natural zero calorie carbonated soft drink.

21 Oct 2009

New dual-port ophthalmic green laser photocoagulator introduced by IRIDEX

IRIDEX Corporation today announced the introduction of the IQ 532(TM) dual-port ophthalmic green laser photocoagulator which will be featured at the 2009 American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting in San Francisco.

21 Oct 2009

New website provides advice on health care and lifestyle options

When Regence member Adrianne Johnson needed to find a primary care physician (PCP), she asked friends for recommendations, and then logged on to myRegence.com to compare those recommendations with feedback from other Regence members who were patients of those doctors. Based on the Member Reviews she read on myRegence.com, Johnson was able to find not just a PCP she was comfortable with, but specialists, as well.

21 Oct 2009

IRIDEX announces launch of a Modular Multi-Wavelength laser photocoagulator solution

IRIDEX Corporation today announced the introduction of a Modular Multi-Wavelength laser photocoagulator solution, which will be featured at the 2009 American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting in San Francisco.

21 Oct 2009

Abbott acquires Visiogen; expands vision care business

Abbott today announced that it has completed its acquisition of privately held eye care company Visiogen, expanding the company's vision care business with a next-generation accommodating intraocular lens (IOL) technology to address presbyopia for cataract patients.

21 Oct 2009

University Children's Eye Center to use SRS hybrid EMR for pediatric ophthalmology practice

SRS, the leader in high-performance hybrid EMR solutions, today announced that University Children's Eye Center has selected the SRS high-performance hybrid EMR for its high-volume pediatric ophthalmology practice located in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

21 Oct 2009

Retinal prosthesis restores partial vision to people who are totally blind

Two experimental treatments, a retinal prosthesis and fetal tissue transplant, restored some vision to people with blinding eye diseases. The findings, presented at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news on brain science and health, may lead to new treatments for the blind. Researchers also reported that an engineered protein restored vision in an animal model and identified ways to improve stem cell treatments.

21 Oct 2009

Brandeis psychologist receives the 2009 Baltes Foundation Award

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) - the nation's largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging - has chosen Brandeis University Professor Derek M. Isaacowitz, as the 2009 recipient of the Margret M. & Paul B. Baltes Foundation Award in Behavioral and Social Gerontology.

20 Oct 2009

Human neural stem cells protect cone photoreceptors: StemCells preclinical data

StemCells, Inc. announced today new preclinical data showing that its human neural stem cells protect cone photoreceptors (cones) in the eye from progressive degeneration and preserve visual function long term.

20 Oct 2009

NIH funded regeneration research to be presented at Society for Neuroscience annual meeting

Biologists long have marveled at the ability of some animals to re-grow lost body parts. Newts, for example, can lose a leg and grow a new one identical to the original. Zebrafish can re-grow fins.

20 Oct 2009

Study on the economic impact of antibiotic overuse and antibiotic-resistant infections

The Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) and Cook County Hospital (currently John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County), today announced the release of an eye-opening study on the economic impact of antibiotic overuse and antibiotic-resistant infections (ARIs) sponsored by an unrestricted educational grant from bioMerieux and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

19 Oct 2009

Lux Biosciences raises $50 million through Series B venture financing

Lux Biosciences, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of therapies for serious ophthalmic diseases, today announced that the company has closed a $50 million Series B venture financing. Participants in the funding were current investors in Lux Biosciences, HBM Bioventures, Novo A/S, Prospect Venture Partners and SV Life Sciences (SVLS), as well as SVLS' publicly traded fund, International Biotechnology Trust plc.

19 Oct 2009

Premier Plastic Surgery redesigns its website to provide more information of cosmetic surgery

Premier Plastic Surgery of Kansas City, serving residents of Kansas City and beyond for 22 years, has redesigned its extensive website to include a separate section on Cosmetic Surgery for Males, a new Skin Care Centre, and a Plastic Surgery Blog that features breaking news on emerging research, techniques and products.

19 Oct 2009

QLT receives exclusive U.S. sales and marketing rights for Visudyne therapy

QLT Inc. ("QLT" or the "Company") today announced that it has restructured its agreement with Novartis Pharma AG ("Novartis") to simplify the relationship, under which, effective January 1, 2010, it will, among other things, receive exclusive U.S. rights to the Visudyne(R) patents to sell and market Visudyne in the U.S. Visudyne, a photosensitizer co-developed with Novartis, is approved worldwide for the treatment of a form of wet age-related macular degeneration ("AMD"), the leading cause of legal blindness in people over the age of 55 in North America and Europe.

19 Oct 2009

Stem cell treatments could repair the kidney defects associated with Alport syndrome

Several cell-based therapy approaches could provide new treatments for patients with Alport syndrome, reports an upcoming paper in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). "Our study opens up many considerations of how new therapies related to the use of stem cells can be devised for our kidney patients with chronic disease," comments Raghu Kalluri, MD, PhD (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA).

19 Oct 2009