Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute have found that people with low vision can improve their ability to see and enjoy television with a new technique that allows them to enhance the contrast of images of people and objects of interest on their digital televisions.
An educational and motivational video, designed to increase emotional well-being and use of adaptive devices in low vision patients increased knowledge but did not change behavior or emotions, says Schepens Eye Research Institute scientists in a study in the March Issue of Optometry & Vision Science.
Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute say a visual aid they invented promises to improve the visual abilities of people with tunnel vision. In the first study to evaluate this small high tech device, the research team saw a significant increase in the effectiveness and speed with which visually impaired individuals found objects.
Scientists at the Harvard Department of Ophthalmology's Schepens Eye Research Institute and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) are the first to learn why the cornea, the clear window of the eye, is free of blood vessels--a unique phenomenon that makes vision possible. The key, say the researchers, is the unexpected presence of large amounts of the protein VEGFR-3 (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3) on the top epithelial layer of normal healthy corneas.
Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, are the first to discover a switch inside blood vessel cells that controls angiogenesis (new blood vessel growth). The switch, they learned, is turned on and off by the balance between two enzymes (known as PI3K and PLCg) that compete for the use of the same lipid.
Chadwick Optical, Inc., a small cutting-edge optical business in Vermont, received the second phase of an NIH Small Business Innovation Grant this week. The grant"”$ 750,000--will allow the small woman-owned company to continue to help bring a Schepens Eye Research Institute invention to the public.
More than eight million people in the United States suffer from dry eye syndrome. In the first study of its kind to examine modifiable risk factors, researchers found that the amount, type and ratio of essential fatty acids in the diet may play a key role in dry eye prevention in women.
Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute have discovered that a particular immune cell contributes to the growth of new lymph vessels, which aid in healing. This cell, known as a macrophage, is called in by the body during the wound healing process.
Scientists have discovered that a protein known as F4/80 found on immune cells in the eye and other parts of the body may have a function in the regulation of the body's immune response and protect delicate tissues that cannot survive the "inflammation" inherent in full-blown immunity.
For the first time, scientists have regenerated a damaged optic nerve -- from the eye to the brain. This achievement, which occurred in laboratory mice.
For the first time, scientists have found that bacteria can use a Sonar-like system to spot other cells (either normal body cells or other bacteria) and target them for destruction.
For the first time researchers have shown that transplanted stem cells can preserve and improve vision in eyes damaged by retinal disease.
The Schepens Eye Research Institute has been awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to form teams of basic and clinical researchers from many disciplines to find cures for blinding eye diseases such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.
For the first time scientists have found that VEGFR-3 controls how immune cells traffic within the eye and also stimulates the immune system to reject corneal transplants. The researchers have also found that when this growth factor is blocked, corneal transplants survive.
Vision experts from around the country and the world will gather to explore why women are nearly twice as likely to lose their vision as men and how to stem the tide of blinding diseases in women. Members of the media are invited to attend.
Nearly 3.2 million American women age 50 and older suffer from dry eye syndrome, a painful, debilitating eye disease, according to an epidemiological study. The study indicates that dry eye in women is an important health issue that may often remain undiagnosed.
For the first time scientists have shown that brain stem cells are immune privileged, which means that they are invisible to a transplant recipient's immune system and do not trigger the immune system to reject them.
Scientists at Schepens Eye Research have found that the iris pigment epithelium (IPE), a thin layer of cells lining the iris of the eye, produces a molecule that disables T Cells, the cells that normally attack and kill foreign microbes invading the body.
Cells in the retina known as glial cells set up a physical barrier that prevents retinal transplants from migrating, growing and hooking up to the host retina and the optic nerve to restore sight, scientists have found.
Scientists have found that an inflammatory immune response, which is suppressed in the normal eye, may be an early, perhaps the first, step in the onset of a kind of glaucoma known as pigment dispersion glaucoma.
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