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NEI Research News

Thanks to the work of NEI scientists and grantees, we’re constantly learning new information about the causes and treatment of vision disorders. Get the latest updates about their work — along with other news about NEI.

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415 items
Florescent photo of mouse rod photoreceptor, next to photoreceptor schematic showing cell body, inner and outer segments.

Scientists shine light on how eyes adapt to the dark

A basic research study from the National Eye Institute (NEI) explains how the molecule transducin moves within light-sensing rod photoreceptors in mouse retina to help the eye quickly adapt from bright to low light and back.
Earth

Iriqat and Lee deliver Global Health Vision Lectures

Series fosters global collaboration and exchange of information among international vision researchers and eye health clinical scientists

3D map reveals DNA organization within human retina cells

National Eye Institute researchers mapped the organization of human retinal cell chromatin, the fibers that package 3 billion nucleotide-long DNA molecules into compact structures that fit into chromosomes within each cell’s nucleus.
Kiam Preston

NEI’s Preston teaches, inspires young scientists

A graduate student at the National Eye Institute, Preston volunteered this summer as a virtual instructor in the 8-week-long Journal of Emerging Investigators Mini Ph.D. Program.
RPE cell

NEI scientists publish protocol for making patient-derived eye tissue

The protocol gives step-by-step instructions, starting with patient-derived pluripotent stem cells, transitioning them to retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells and finally maturing them into RPE tissue.
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Tuncay first to complete NEI international fellowship in ocular genetics

Fulya Yaylacıoğlu Tuncay, M.D., Ph.D., said she gained crucial experience in translational medicine as the first participant in an ocular genetics fellowship program sponsored by NEI and the International Council of Ophthalmology.
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NEI hosts video contest winners

A July 22 event welcomed 10 teens from across the country as a reward for their winning submissions to the first-ever NEI “Eye on the Future” video competition. More than 40 high-school students submitted 3-minute science-themed videos to the contest.
Image of an eye with choroideremia, characterized by enlarged RPE cells.

Novel imaging approach reveals important details about rare eye disease choroideremia

Researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) have shown for the first time how cells across different tissue layers in the eye are affected in people with choroideremia, a rare genetic disorder that leads to blindness.
Retinal organoid with green photoreceptor outer segments.

NIH researchers develop gene therapy for rare ciliopathy

Researchers from the National Eye Institute (NEI) have developed a gene therapy that rescues cilia defects in retinal cells affected by a type of Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a disease that causes blindness in early childhood.
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First U.S. patient receives autologous stem cell therapy to treat dry AMD

The patient received the therapy as part of a clinical trial that is the first in the United States to use replacement tissues from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells.