New vision center opens at Colulmbia University

New York-Columbia University Medical Center is hoping its new Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Clinical Research Center in Vision will help to develop solutions to the world's most pressing vision problems.

The center, which opened with fanfare July 8, is funded by the Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Foundation, Angelica and the late Russell Berrie, and the Starr Foundation.

The center includes the Russ and Angelica Berrie Diabetic Retinopathy Research Unit and the Starr Foundation Retina Research Unit.

The center plans to offer a multi-pronged approach to the treatment of human disease by identifying at-risk patients and populations, facilitating gene-targeted pharmaceutical development, and making possible the use of gene therapy. Faculty will work closely with researchers at the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University Medical Center in their work on diabetic retinopathy.

The Starr Foundation Retina Research Unit will study age-related macular degeneration and myopia, with work focusing on the identification of genes causing or predisposing individuals to the development of macular degeneration and the development of new methods for prevention and treatment.