Featured series 
Tag: Ophthalmology
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Campus & Community
HMS publication recognized in national design competition
“Frontiers in Ophthalmology,” a comprehensive report of the Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, won a national design competition for its 2012 publication.
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Science & Tech
Safer cataract surgery at hand
A new, highly innovative, computer-based simulation tool, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (Mass. Eye and Ear) Cataract Master, bridges the learning gap that residents and ophthalmologists new to phaco must navigate prior to performing actual surgery.
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Campus & Community
Lloyd M. Aiello receives Alpert Prize for preventing blindness in diabetic patients
Lloyd M. Aiello, a Harvard Medical School clinical professor of ophthalmology at Joslin Diabetes Center’s Beetham Eye Institute, will receive the 2008-09 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize on Sept. 29.
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Health
Research may lead to treatment for retinitis pigmentosa
Rods and cones coexist peacefully in healthy retinas. Both types of cells occupy the same layer of tissue and send signals when they detect light, which is the first step in vision.
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Health
Bacterium present in eyes with ‘wet’ age-related macular degeneration
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in Americans over the age of 55. The majority of vision loss is due to neovascular AMD, the advanced form of the disease characterized by the formation of blood vessels in the macula, the center part of the eye’s retina. These blood vessels often leak,…
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Health
Study shows new compound may reduce risk of vision loss in patients with diabetes
The PKC-Diabetic Retinopathy Study (DRS) was designed to evaluate the safety and effect of an oral treatment, RBX, on retinopathy progression or visual loss in patients with moderately severe to very severe nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy. In the study, patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes received either RBX or a placebo over three to…
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Health
Schepens scientists regenerate optic nerve for the first time
In earlier research, Dr. Dong Feng Chen, lead author of the study, assistant scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute and an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical school, and her team discovered several processes that they believed “locked up” the optic nerve’s ability to regenerate. The first lock was the turning off of the…
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Health
Hormone replacement therapy may lower degenerative eye disease risk in postmenopausal women
ARM is a degenerative eye disease that affects the macula, which is responsible for central vision, which is necessary for reading, driving and recognizing people’s faces. Advanced ARM is the leading cause of irreversible blindness among elderly individuals worldwide. Approximately 1.7 million people have decreased vision due to ARM, and 200,000 people develop advanced ARM…
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Health
Researchers eye earliest triggers of age-related macular degeneration
Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness for Americans over 60 years of age. It affects more than 14 million people. But how it attacks the macula, the center of the retina, is a controversial question. The macula is where the cones — the color and light sensing cells of the eye —…
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Health
Snack foods may increase risk of age-related sight loss
Macular degeneration results from the malfunctioning or loss of function of photo-sensitive cells in the retina. According to the Macular Degeneration Foundation, more than 13 million people in the United States are affected; a new case of adult macular degeneration is diagnosed in the U.S. every three minutes. A study in the August 2001 issue…
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Health
Sights set on partial corneal transplants
“We don’t have any way of curing these problems,” says Nancy Joyce, a Harvard researcher who is working on saving people’s sight when their corneas deteriorate. “The only way right now is full corneal transplantation, healthy tissue and all. In our work, we’re trying to facilitate replacement of the diseased tissue only.” To do that,…