study of devastating eye disease
Foresight Inc., a Connecticut-based charitable foundation, has made a $1 million research gift to the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at the School of Medicine to establish a center to study macular degeneration.
Macular degeneration is the leading cause of visual impairments in the United States, affecting an estimated one-third of the population over the age of 65. It is caused by the deterioration of the central portion of the retina, known as the macula. The macula is the inside back layer of the eye that records visual images and sends them via the optic nerve from the eye to the brain. Although the disease is most often related to aging, there are other less common forms of macular degeneration that can affect individuals at any age.
Foresight was founded in 1968 by patients treated by Yale ophthalmologists for the purpose of supporting basic research into devastating blinding eye diseases. The current gift, along with $1 million in matching funds raised by Yale, will be put toward the $5 million cost of establishing a center.
The proposed center will address the cellular and molecular biology and physiology of development of the retina and problems in function of the retina. The center will have an arm for molecular genetics to study inherited macular disease.
Yale has long been a world leader in vision research, particularly in the fields of glaucoma and the retina. Among the achievements of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science are production of timolol, the most commonly used pharmaceutical for the treatment of glaucoma, and the identification of the molecular mechanism by means of which the retina transforms light into an electrical signal.
-- By Jacqueline Weaver
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