Eye News and Research

Latest Eye News and Research

UCR's 23nd annual Science and Engineering Fair to be held Feb. 7-9

What are you really eating when you're eating chicken? Do different types of wood produce the same heat when burned? Do twins have similar fingerprints? How does sleep affect your memory? Does your eye color matter? Hundreds of K-12 students from 33 local schools will answer these and other intriguing questions at the 23nd annual Science and Engineering Fair at the University of California, Riverside, Feb. 7-9. The fair will take place at the Pentland Hills Bear Cave on campus.

7 Feb 2012

Exposure to manganese may increase risk of clumsiness in former welders

Welders who are exposed to manganese from welding fumes, risk developing increased clumsiness - and the result may remain decades after exposure has ceased. This is the finding of a study at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, of former shipyard workers.

7 Feb 2012

Medicaid news: Kansas insurer says 'no' to Medicaid

The state of Kansas' largest insurance company has decided it doesn't want to participate in Gov. Sam Brownback's plan to move Medicaid patients into privatized managed-care programs. In a letter addressed "Dear provider," Angie Strecker, director of institutional relations for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, said the insurer "has decided not to submit a proposal to the state to be a Medicaid contractor."

6 Feb 2012

Tennessee Gov. declares February as 'St. Jude Month'

In 1962, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital opened its doors amid an emotionally charged debate regarding how to treat childhood cancer. At that time, few children with the most common form of childhood cancer survived, and many physicians believed treatment was futile. St. Jude physicians and researchers took a radically different approach, and these efforts proved pivotal in changing the way the world treats childhood cancer.

6 Feb 2012

AFER congratulates the first Genentech AMD Fellowship recipients

ARVO Foundation for Eye Research (AFER) congratulates the first AFER/Genentech Age-related macular Degeneration Fellowship recipients - Balamurali K. Ambati, MD, PhD, and Stephen H. Tsang, MD, PhD. Each received $40,000 to support their age-related macular degeneration (AMD) research and will be honored at the 2012 ARVO Annual Meeting on Sunday, May 6, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

4 Feb 2012

HHS essential benefits 'bulletin' draws tide of comments

As the official window of time allowed for groups to react to the Department of Health and Human Services essential benefits proposal closed, a variety of objections, concerns and common themes became clear.

3 Feb 2012

Study shows stalled growth in extended-wear lens prescribing

After more than a decade on the market, extended-wear (EW) contact lenses still haven't caught on among patients and eye care professionals, reports the February issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry.

2 Feb 2012

FDA clears TearScience's LipiFlow Thermal Pulsation System to treat dry eye

TearScience, Inc., a privately-held medical device company, today announced that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its next generation product of its LipiFlow Thermal Pulsation System, a medical device that treats evaporative dry eye by liquefying and evacuating obstructions in meibomian glands located in the eyelids.

1 Feb 2012

Prestige acquires 15 brands from GSK

Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc. today announced that it has completed its previously announced purchase of fifteen of the seventeen brands it agreed to acquire from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

1 Feb 2012

Fish intake can help pregnant women improve their progeny's intelligence

Can pregnant women improve their progeny's intelligence by eating fish? A study recently submitted to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and coordinated by the University of Granada professor Cristina Campoy Folgoso revealed that infants born to mothers who consumed more fish during pregnancy score higher in verbal intelligence and fine motor skill tests, and present an increased prosocial behavior.

1 Feb 2012

Circadian's VGX-100 human antibody improves corneal graft survival

Circadian Technologies Limited announced today the publication of data in the scientific journal, Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS), showing that VEGF-C expression is markedly up-regulated in corneal graft rejection.

30 Jan 2012

Study finds protein's entwined arm movements may control fate of potentially toxic payload

Like a magician employing sleight of hand, the protein mitoNEET -- a mysterious but important player in diabetes, cancer and aging -- draws the eye with a flurry of movement in one location while the subtle, more crucial action takes place somewhere else.

30 Jan 2012

UH vision scientist hopes techniques lead to earlier diagnoses in glaucoma

A University of Houston (UH) vision scientist has received a $1.85 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate whether his techniques are more effective than others in understanding the earliest changes of glaucoma, which could lead to developing a way to earlier diagnose this potentially blinding disease.

27 Jan 2012

Researchers discover new gene linked to MLCRD

Researchers have found a new gene that, when mutated, can lead to lymphoedema (swollen limbs) as part of a rare disorder that can also cause problems with eye and brain development. This is the fourth lymphoedema-related gene found by the same researchers in three years, and the first linked to the eyes and brain. They say it could lead to better diagnosis and treatment for lymphoedema, an area that has been poorly understood previously.

27 Jan 2012

Mass. Eye and Ear cornea specialist wins RPB Senior Scientific Investigator Award

Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) has granted Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary cornea specialist James Chodosh, M.D., M.P.H., a $150,000 Senior Scientific Investigator Award. RPB Senior Scientific Investigator Awards support nationally recognized scientists conducting eye research at medical institutions in the United States.

27 Jan 2012

BGSU chemist uses supercomputer to help unlock benefits of toxic bacteria

Blue-green algae is causing havoc in Midwestern lakes saturated with agricultural run-off, but researchers in a northwest Ohio lab are using supercomputers to study a closely related strain of the toxic cyanobacteria to harness its beneficial properties.

26 Jan 2012