New research from McMaster University may answer a controversial question: do the blind have a better sense of touch because the brain compensates for vision loss or because of heavy reliance on their fingertips?

University of Utah scientists used invisible infrared light to make rat heart cells contract and toadfish inner-ear cells send signals to the brain. The discovery someday might improve cochlear implants for deafness and lead to devices to restore vision, maintain balance and treat movement disorders like Parkinson’s.

Developmental processes are increasingly well-characterized at the molecular and cell biological levels, but how more complex tissues and organs involving the coordinated action of multiple cell types in three dimensions is achieved remains something of a black box.

In a paper published in the April 25 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco and colleagues report a game-changing advance in stem cell science: the creation of long-term, self-renewing, primitive neural precursor cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) that can be directed to become many types of neuron without increased risk of tumor formation.

Disorders of the eye are excellent targets for gene therapy because the ocular environment is readily accessible, relatively easy to monitor, and sequestered from the rest of the body.

The anatomy of migraine ”“ a close look at the neurobiology of the disease ”“ focuses on the thalamus, the area of the brain that is involved in sensory perception and regulation of motor functions, in one a major session of the 53rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society meeting here this week.

Jason S. Meyer, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology in the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, will be honored by the largest eye and vision research organization in the world for work which one day may lead to reversal of blindness caused by macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and other diseases of the retina.

Scientists from Schepens Eye Research Institute are the first to regenerate large areas of damaged retinas and improve visual function using IPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) derived from skin.

Elevated pressure inside the eye, cornea thinning, and visual field loss are all markers that glaucoma may progress.

Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered how two closely related proteins guide projections from nerve cells with exquisite accuracy, alternately attracting and repelling these axons as they navigate the most miniscule and frenetic niches of the nervous system to make remarkably precise connections.

New research at UC Santa Barbara is contributing to the basic biological understanding of how retinas develop.

University of Oregon researcher Richard Taylor is on a quest to grow flowers that will help people who’ve lost their sight, such as those suffering from macular degeneration, to see again.

The human eye long ago solved a problem common to both digital and film cameras: how to get good contrast in an image while also capturing faint detail.

Scientists from the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast are teaming up to develop a cure to an illness that can lead to blindness in premature babies, thanks to funding from children’s charity Action Medical Research.

Scientists have identified in the journal Nature a new molecular pathway used to suppress blood vessel branching in the developing retina — a finding with potential therapeutic value for fighting diseases of the retina and a variety of cancers.

The purpose of the phase 2 study was to test the effects of unoprostone isopropyl in protecting and improving the central vision in mid-stage to late-stage RP patients.

Este pequeño microchip es quizá la clave que faltaba a los cientí­ficos para lograr un sistema de implante de vista artificial para ayudar a las personas que sufren de degeneración macular o de retinitis pigmentaria.

En el abordaje del agujero macular el éxito quirúrgico supera el 90 por ciento de los casos. Sin embargo, no todos los pacientes consiguen una mejorí­a funcional.

Cientí­ficos del Instituto de Investigación del Ojo Schepens, afiliado a la Facultad de Medicina de Harvard, en Boston, han sido los primeros en regenerar grandes áreas de retinas dañadas y mejorar la función visual utilizando células iPS derivadas de la piel.

Las neuronas estrelladas adquieren su forma definitiva en dos fases y para adquirir su forma necesitan que haya una percepción sensorial adecuada, tal y como ha demostrado el grupo de Ví­ctor Borrell, del Instituto de Neurociencias de la Universidad Miguel Hernández, en Alicante, en un estudio que se publica en Journal of Neuroscience.

Asumiendo que este mecanismo exista en todos los mamí­feros, incluyendo al Ser Humano, la aparición en personas adultas de problemas relativos a la hormona tiroidea podrí­a afectar a la visión en color.

Objetivo: comparar la eficacia del tratamiento con bevacizumab intraví­treo frente a la del tratamiento convencional con láser para disminuir la recurrencia de la retinopatí­a de la prematuridad (ROP).

El sábado 14 de mayo de 2011 en el transcurso de la Junta Directiva de FARPE, FUNDALUCE (Fundación Lucha Contra la Ceguera) resolvió su convocatoria de ayudas a “Proyectos de Investigación sobre posibles Estrategias Terapéuticas concretas en el Campo de la Retinosis Pigmentaria”, por valor de 20.000 euros al proyecto liderado por la Dra. Carmen Ayuso Garcí­a, genetista de la Fundación Jiménez Dí­az de Madrid.

Many DNA variants implicated in genetic disease are not made public in papers or public databases, and therefore remain unclassified variants (VUS), which is a challenge for genetic counseling.