Friday, April 10, 2015
Research to Prevent Blindness Backs Innovative Glaucoma Research
Currently, there is no cure for the disease, and once vision is lost, it cannot be regained.
However, Robert. W. Williams, PhD, chair of the Department of Genetics, Genomics and Informatics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), has received a Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Stein Innovation Award totaling $300,000 for research into molecular activity in the retina that initiates glaucoma. His goal is to understand the first targets of the disease - the cells most susceptible to the disease - and help devise new prevention and therapy.
At the present time, treatment focuses on reducing pressure in the eye that can trigger glaucoma, rather than addressing the disease at a cellular level. Most often, by the time patients seek treatment, vision is already altered....