Eye News and Research

Latest Eye News and Research

First Edition: November 3, 2011

Today's headlines include reports about a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are urging the super committee to consider "all options."

3 Nov 2011

Pupil can constrict without any input from brain

You've seen it on television: A doctor shines a bright light into an unconscious patient's eye to check for brain death. If the pupil constricts, the brain is OK, because in mammals, the brain controls the pupil. Or does it? Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that in most mammals, in fact in most vertebrates, the pupil can constrict without any input from the brain.

3 Nov 2011

Clinical-grade viral vector can cure choroideremia

Researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center and Nationwide Children's Hospital have developed a viral vector designed to deliver a gene into the eyes of people born with an inherited, progressive form of blindness that affects mainly males.

3 Nov 2011

New laser technique could create tissue scaffolds, microneedles

In the emerging field of tissue engineering, scientists encourage cells to grow on carefully designed support scaffolds. The ultimate goal is to create living structures that might one day be used to replace lost or damaged tissue, but the manufacture of appropriately detailed scaffolds presents a significant challenge that has kept most tissue engineering applications confined to the research lab.

3 Nov 2011

Combination of Mediterranean diet, physical activity can help improve symptoms of OSAS

Eating a Mediterranean diet combined with physical activity can help to improve some of the symptoms of sleep apnoea, according to new research.

3 Nov 2011

TERE1 gene mutation also contributes to invasive bladder cancer

Research conducted by Dr. Jayne S. Weiss, Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, and colleagues has found that a defect in a gene involved in a rare disease of the cornea also contributes to the progression of invasive bladder cancer.

2 Nov 2011

Researchers identify small-molecule drug candidates for many metabolic conditions

A new discovery by Californian scientists may lead to a pharmaceutical breakthrough for a wide range of illnesses that involve the hydration of cells that line the inner surfaces of our body's organs and tissues. In a new report appearing in the FASEB Journal, the researchers describe how they used high-throughput screening to identify small-molecule drug candidates which help cells bypass defective channels that normally move salt and water through cell membranes.

2 Nov 2011

Nurse scientist recognized as AACN's 2012 Distinguished Research Lecturer

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) recently selected Martha A.Q. Curley, RN, PhD, FAAN, as its 2012 Distinguished Research Lecturer.

2 Nov 2011

Non-invasive rtACS treatment can reduce partial blindness

It has long been thought that blindness after brain lesions is irreversible and that damage to the optic nerves leads to permanent impairments in everyday activities such as reading, driving, and spatial orientation. A new study published in Elsevier's Brain Stimulation suggests that treating such patients with low levels of non-invasive, repetitive, transorbital alternating current stimulation (rtACS) for 10 days significantly reduces visual impairment and markedly improves vision-related quality of life.

1 Nov 2011

Vegenics receives IND approval from FDA for VGX-100 Phase I study in late stage cancers

Circadian Technologies Limited announces that its 100% owned subsidiary, Vegenics Pty Ltd, has received approval for its investigational new drug application from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to initiate clinical trials of VGX-100.

31 Oct 2011

First Edition: October 31, 2011

In today's headlines, news reports about a key medical group's take on accountable care organizations and how a "merger wave" is hitting the health care sector.

31 Oct 2011

Mayo Clinic, Oxford BioMedica collaborate to develop gene therapy for glaucoma

Oxford BioMedica plc, the leading gene-based biopharmaceutical company, today announces that it has entered into a research and development collaboration with Mayo Clinic, Rochester (USA) to develop a novel gene therapy for the treatment of chronic glaucoma.

31 Oct 2011

Eye Shelter, Menicon sign SOLO-care contact lens marketing agreement

Menicon Holdings BV and Eye Shelter SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Laboratoires Thea, a France-based independent ophthalmic group, announced on October 31 that Menicon is to become Eye Shelter's exclusive partner to market the SOLO-care (R) contact lens solutions range in member states of the European Economic Area and Canada.

31 Oct 2011

Neutralization approach appears to prevent proliferative vitreoretinopathy

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), or the formation of scar tissue within the eye, is a serious, sight-threatening complication in patients recovering surgical repair of retinal detachment. A new study conducted by investigators at the Schepens Eye Research Institute, the Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, published in the December issue of the American Journal of Pathology, suggests that a cocktail containing reagents to neutralize a relatively small subset of vitreal growth factors and cytokines may be an effective treatment.

31 Oct 2011

Researcher's compound disables bacteria instead of killing them

After 70 years, antibiotics are still the primary treatment for halting the spread of bacterial infections. But the prevalence of antibiotic resistance is now outpacing the rate of new drug discovery and approval. A microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) has discovered a different approach: Instead of killing the bacteria, why not disarm them, quashing disease without the worry of antibiotic resistance?

29 Oct 2011

A glimpse into non-waking consciousness of lucid dreamers

When people dream that they are performing a particular action, a portion of the brain involved in the planning and execution of movement lights up with activity. The finding, made by scanning the brains of lucid dreamers while they slept, offers a glimpse into the non-waking consciousness and is a first step toward true "dream reading,".

28 Oct 2011