Funding focuses on blinding eye disease

Salt Lake City and San Diego-Blinding eye diseases will be the focus of $350,000 in research funded by Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) at the John A. Moran Eye Center (JMEC) of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and in the department of ophthalmology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), School of Medicine.

At the JMEC, Gregory Hageman, PhD, has received a $150,000 Senior Scientific Investigator Award. Dr. Hageman is the John A. Moran Presidential Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the director of the Moran Center for Translational Medicine.

Also, JMEC’s department of ophthalmology and visual sciences has received $100,000 for research to be directed by Randall J. Olson, MD, chairman of the department and chief executive officer of the JMEC.

“We are grateful to RPB for their charitable gifts and continual support of our research,” Dr. Olson said. “The research efforts at the [JMEC] are moving forward at a rapid pace, and these gifts will further the studies that will lead to treatments and cures for devastating eye diseases.”

To date, RPB has awarded grants totaling $4.8 million to the University of Utah.

UCSD has received a $100,000 grant for research to be directed by Robert N. Weinreb, MD, chairman of the ophthalmology department and director of the Shiley Eye Center.

“These funds are particularly invaluable for enhancing our ability to conduct the most impactful vision research,” he said. “They will facilitate existing research, support cross-disciplinary investigative programs, and assist in the translation of our research to prevent and cure blindness.”

The institution has received more than $3 million in grants from RPB since 1984, supporting research in glaucoma as well as cornea and retinal diseases.

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