More than 30 eye researchers from the University of Nebraska gave 37 presentations at the recent annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The meeting attracted more than 10,000 investigators from around the world for a week of presentations and discussions on advancements in eye research.
“The size and quality of the eye research programs at the University of Nebraska have grown tremendously in the last few years. The number of investigators from the university that presented at the ARVO meeting is a confirmation of how cutting-edge the university’s research is,” said Carl Camras, M.D., chairman of the department of ophthalmology at UNMC. “Certainly, in the area of eye research, the university has many talented investigators making significant advances in ophthalmology and the visual sciences.”
The researchers who presented at the meeting are faculty members in several departments at UNMC and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The UNMC departments of ophthalmology and pharmaceutical sciences, as well as the Eppley Institute, were represented. Faculty from the UNL departments of chemistry and biomedical sciences also presented.
Presentations included posters and talks on new glaucoma drugs, how visual information is processed by the retina, why some people have high pressure in their eyes, stem cell advances in treating retinal diseases, treatments for cataracts, improving delivery of drugs to the back of the eye, and understanding the biochemistry of the lens, among others.
Dr. Camras said the growth of eye research at the University of Nebraska has been made possible by support from the UNMC Tobacco Settlement Biomedical Research Development Fund; the National Institutes of Health; Research to Prevent Blindness, a voluntary organization that supports eye research; the American Health Assistance Foundation; and several pharmaceutical companies.