Researching the future of vision health
All of our scientists are steadfast in their commitment to translational research - an approach to scientific inquiry that identifies patient well-being as the ultimate answer to every question we ask. We are also committed to collaborative research - an approach to investigation that produces impactful results by drawing upon the diverse talents of multiple medical specialties, academic disciplines, and clinical observations.
Emory Research @ARVO 2024
The Research Division of the Emory Department of Ophthalmology will establish a powerful presence at the 2024 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) conference, to be held May 5 - 9 in Seattle, Washington. Under the direction of Machelle T. Pardue, the vice chair for Research, a team of more than 50 researchers, post-docs, and graduate students will attend the conference, considered the preeminent gathering of innovators in ophthalmological research. The Emory contingent will be making 37 presentations during the five-day event.
Here's a quick overview of the Emory Eye Center presentations:
Investigating new approaches to ROP
The Research Division of the Department of Ophthalmology has attracted inspired funding from a broad range of public and private sources, including NIH, NEI, and ARVO.
July 2023 - A two-year $430K grant from the National Eye Institute will enable Department of Ophthalmology researchers Mike Iuvone, PhD and Jeffrey Boatright, PhD to conduct proof-of-concept studies for a novel treatment for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).
The non-invasive approach is outlined in their proposal, “Atypical Opsins and the Oxygen-Induced Retinopathy (OIR) Model of Retinopathy of Prematurity” which was approved for funding earlier this summer.
While advances in neonatal care have increasingly enabled physicians to save premature infants, these tiny infants do face other health issues, including retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a retinal disease characterized by aberrant vascular and neural development.
Iuvone and Boatright’s research seeks to evaluate the efficacy of protecting retinal vascular development in mice who have oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) by varying their exposure to different types of environmental light. Their findings could have broad implications for prenatal and neonatal eye care, including the development of an innovative, non-invasive preventative treatment for ROP.
Iuvone and Boatright’s approach builds on the fact that premature infants are at higher risk for ROP because the oxygen-rich neonatal incubators where they spend their first hours of life also suppress retinal vascular development. Retinopathy results when these infants are returned to room air where compensatory pathological neovascularization occurs.
Previous research suggests that stimulation of OPN4-VEGFA blue light response pathways protect retinal vascular development. Similarly, stimulation of the OPN5_dopamine-VEGFR2 violate light pathways is thought to worsen retinopathy.
See what all 9 of Emory Eye Center's Research Groups are doing.