RPB Timeline: 1960 - 2010
1960
RPB is established in February 1960. Its goal: to prevent loss of sight and cure blinding diseases through research.
RPB's Board of Trustees conducts an intensive survey and identifies three major barriers impeding eye research: (1) lack of adequate laboratory facilities; (2) lack of trained and talented manpower; and (3) lack of unrestricted funds for promising projects.
RPB convenes a conference of leading ophthalmologists to help further refine RPB's initial activities.
RPB develops a program to stimulate more intensive and more extensive eye research by: developing and expanding existing research facilities at leading U.S. eye research institutions; broadening research activities at these institutions; enabling gifted researchers to make their careers in ophthalmic research; and focusing broad public attention on the urgent need for expanded research.
RPB's first project to expand eye research facilities results in a grant to Johns Hopkins University Medical Institutions in Baltimore, MD, to create the new Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute. Funds raised in a campaign initiated and conducted by RPB represent the first time that an outside organization has financed and directed a campaign for a university. The Institute will be the world's largest unified research center for the study of the eye.
RPB officials appear before Congressional appropriations committees to press for funds for ophthalmic research. Congress directs $1 million of the increase in the total appropriation to the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness to be devoted to blindness research – the first amount ever specifically allocated for this purpose.
1961
RPB officers appear again before a Congressional appropriations committee. Congress allocates $10 million to blindness research.
Unrestricted grants to institutions begin, including grants to:
· design new surgical equipmentfor correcting retinal detachments at the University of Oregon;
· purchase component facilities for an analog computer and automatic amino acid analyzer at the Kresge Eye Institute, Detroit;
· purchase instruments used to compile an atlas on trachoma and related diseases for the Division of Indian Health at the University of California;
· conduct conferences on ophthalmic biochemistry at Harvard University for two years.
1962
RPB implements first comprehensive survey ever undertaken of the status of eye research in the USA. To be completed in 1964, it will conclude with a national conference and a published report.
Formation of RPB's Scientific Advisory Panel, representing a broad cross-section of the medical sciences, to advise on the development of RPB's long-range program.
$4 million campaign begins at the University of California, Los Angeles to construct an eye research center to be named the Jules Stein Eye Institute.
22 medical research institutions receive unrestricted grant support from RPB.
RPB's first step toward establishing a program of eye research career awards and professorships: a grant of $75,000 over five years for a research scientist at Johns Hopkins.
Special grant made to the American Foundation for the Blind for research related to sociology, education and rehabilitation of the blind.
IDU, originally synthesized as a possible anti-cancer drug, reported effective against herpes simplex keratitis, a widespread eye infection that causes opaque and blinding scars and leads to 8 out of 10 corneal transplants done in the USA. (Ranked by the American Medical Association as one of the year's ten most important medical advances.)
RPB funding to Harvard University (and Dr. Ephraim Friedman) resulted in the first successful photography of the bloodstreams within the retina, magnified 1,000 times.
RPB funding to New York University expedited NYU's use of a laser to repair torn retinas.
1963
RPB retains Dr. Thomas D. Duane, Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at Jefferson Medical College to begin a survey that will assess the status and needs of vision research in the US. He visits more than 100 research laboratories.
Cryosurgery, a new surgical technique developed through RPB support, used to reattach detached retinas.
Unrestricted support at Washington University used in continuing studies of families of glaucoma patients indicating that glaucoma is inherited as a recessive rather than a dominant trait.
RPB's unrestricted grant to the University of Florida helps finance preliminary studies by Dr. Richard Copenhaver on objective visual field testing, which for the first time makes possible reliable recording of the specific response of the brain to small visual stimuli. This exciting development opens the way for intensive basic research on the visual system.
1964
Two-year study, titled "Ophthalmic Research: U.S.A.," initiated and financed by RPB, is completed, printed, published, distributed and its findings are presented before some 300 scientists and practicing ophthalmologists at a symposium held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology.
· Besides lack of space and manpower, the study cites that a major handicap to ophthalmic research has been its improper status as a subdivision of surgery in a majority of the nation's medical schools resulting in critical reduction in the potential for significant eye research expansion.
Approximately 300 television stations across the nation broadcast a series of spot announcements prepared and distributed by RPB, stressing the key role of eye research in blindness prevention.
As a direct result of RPB unrestricted grants to the University of California, San Francisco, an International Reference Center for Trachoma is established by the World Health Organization at the Francis I. Proctor Foundation, where strains of virus gathered from all over the world will be available for intensive study. (Trachoma is the major cause of blindness in the world today, affecting an estimated one-sixth of the world's population.)
Alan C. Woods Research Building, part of the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute at Johns Hopkins University, opens its doors.
Dr. John E. Dowling of Johns Hopkins University is the recipient of RPB's first Research Professorship Award. Dr. Alan M. Laties at the University of Pennsylvania is the second recipient.
Human sclera, preserved for grafts in retinal detachment surgery, has proven to be an ideal material for various scleroplasty procedures in studies supported by RPB at Indiana University.
1965
In cooperation with RPB, a nationwide survey is conducted by the American Institute of Public Opinion. With the single exception of cancer, American fear blindness more than any other disease or ailment.
First National Science Writers Seminar in Ophthalmic Research held, a four-day meeting bringing eminent eye researchers and science writers from all major news media together in discussion of specific goals and achievements in modern ophthalmic science.
With the Kentucky Lions, RPB underwrites the construction campaign cost of an eye research building at the University of Louisville.
In RPB-financed studies at the Retina Foundation, numerous interferential layers of various materials are being tested to alter the properties of optical surfaces for use in eye research instruments. Optical surfaces free of visual reflections would revolutionize ophthalmoscopy.
1966
Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology (AUPO) is established, with RPB involvement, to evaluate, study and act upon problems facing the advancement of ophthalmic science in the nation's medical schools.
RPB continues to urge Congress to establish a separate National Eye Institute within the National Institutes of Health.
RPB creates a rotating Ad Hoc Committee comprised of ophthalmologists representative of all sections of the country, to assist the RPB Scientific Advisory Panel in reviewing grant applications.
Jules Stein Eye Institute of the University of California, Los Angeles opens.
RPB helps raise funding to construct a building for expansion of eye research within famed Institute of Ophthalmology at Columbia University.
RPB funds a feasibility study at Duke University for expansion.
RPB grant provides funds for the establishment of an Electroretinography Lab at Duke University, advancing by months the inauguration of a project in which the loss of vision associated with multiple sclerosis is being intensively studied.
Inaugural RPB Trustees Award for Outstanding Ophthalmic Achievement presented to Dr. Frank B. Walsh, professor emeritus of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University, for lifetime achievements that have earned him the title, "Father of Neuro-Ophthalmology." (Prize financed through personal contributions of RPB's Board of Trustees.)
1967
RPB Chairman Dr. Jules Stein testifies in favor of enabling legislation to create a separate NEI within the National Institutes of Health at a hearing called by the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee.
RPB Special Grant underwrites the initial meeting of AUPO.
RPB establishes a category of Development Grants to make limited but unrestricted funds available to institutions with embryonic eye research programs.
Cumulative total of RPB unrestricted research grants reaches $1,030,000.
Two RPB Scientific Advisory Panel members – Dr. Haldan K. Hartline of Rockefeller University and Dr. George Wald of Harvard University – are selected to share the Nobel Prize for Medicine with Dr. Ragnar Granit of Sweden, for their work in the field of visual research. Both have served RPB since the organization's establishment. RPB now boasts three Nobel scientists on its Advisory Panel, Dr. Edward L. Tatum having won the prize in 1958.
More than 60 writers and eye researchers attend RPB's Second National Science Writers Seminar in Ophthalmology held in NYC.
1968
On August 17, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs legislation creating a National Eye Institute. RPB initiated and sustained for more than five years those efforts which brought about Congressional and Presidential action. So convincing was the effort, the legislation was carried without dissenting vote by both chambers of Congress.
RPB creates two new programs for the exchange of scientific information and concepts.
· The International Research Scholars Program is designed to encourage young, promising foreign students to visit and work for short periods in American eye research labs.
· The Visiting Professors Program selects senior American ophthalmic scientists to share their experience and knowledge with residents, medical students and staffs of departments of ophthalmology.
1969
Dedication of an ophthalmic research center at the University of Louisville – the third major facility to be completed with RPB sponsorship.
The first three RPB International Research Scholars arrive from the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan.
External eye diseases involving the cornea, lens and anterior chamber of the eye may now be photographed for diagnosis and study with newly-developed zoom slit lamp camera (RPB Grant to UCSF).
RPB grant enables researchers to pinpoint a specific enzyme as a probable causative agent in sugar cataracts.
Through funding from RPB, scientists are testing new and safer materials, such as soft contact lenses, in the treatment of corneal disease and other eye conditions for which there has been no satisfactory therapy.
In a cooperative project with NASA and the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, RPB funds (to the University of Oregon) contribute to the development of a camera producing highly magnified color motion pictures of the blood as it circulates in the retina, for studying eyes threatened by vascular diseases.
1970
Completion and dedication of the fourth eye research center built under RPB's unique laboratory construction program, an eight-story addition for the Columbia-Presbyterian Institute of Ophthalmology (NYC).
Establishment of the RPB Louis B. Mayer Scholars Program, which enables a different scientist in each of three consecutive years to carry on pioneering investigations in vision.
RPB Special Grant for the development of AUPO's research, treatment and teaching programs.
Creation of the William and Mary Greve Memorial Endowment as a permanent fund within RPB.
Fundus camera developed with RPB funds (University of Texas) enables the physician to make stereoscopic color photos of areas in back of the patient's eye during examination.
1971
At a ceremony in the White House, President Richard Nixon launches a nationwide RPB Membership Program which brings together practicing eye physicians and eye research scientists as RPB Ophthalmological Associates to advance RPB's objectives for the advancement of ophthalmic research and practice.
Sponsored by RPB, Milwaukee will be served by a modern eye center to be built for the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Robert Machemer, MD, of the University of Miami becomes the first RPB Louis B. Mayer Scholar for his development of a surgical instrument for formerly untreatable diseases of the vitreous.
A grant to Stanford University allows for an intensive study of diabetic retinopathy in a pool of 250 patients under controlled conditions to improve management of the most rapidly growing cause of blindness in the United States.
At Washington University, living retinal tissue is sustained in a test tube through a new technique, permitting unprecedented observation of these tissues (RPB grant).
A cause of retinal tumor (retinoblastoma) is found in adenovirus type 12, offering hope for better management and possible cure of this type of cancer (Retina Foundation).
A new approach to glaucoma therapy is the promise of a recently discovered drug which, when injected into the eye, may markedly enhance the effect of traditional pressure-lowering medications (Tulane University).
Measurement of blood flow in the living eye is made possible by the newly developed Eye Oximeter, an important step in understanding the nature of macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, and in observing the effectiveness of attempted therapy of these conditions (Boston University).
1972
An RPB-sponsored expedition restores sight to many inhabitants on the remote Pacific atoll of Ponape, in Micronesia, where wide-spread blindness provided clues to a genetic eye disease called achromatopsia.
An RPB survey of practicing ophthalmologists identifies retinal disorders as the 'most difficult to treat' diseaseand first also in need for both basic and clinical research. Next in order of need for research are glaucoma and uveitis. The findings will be published in 1973 in the American Journal of Ophthalmology, "Survey of Need in Ophthalmic Research and Development."
6-hydroxydopamine (6-HD) successfully regulates the intraocular pressure of many patients with uncontrollable glaucoma.
In amblyopia, devices that measure brain waves without the cooperation of the patient are making it possible to uncover the disease in tiny infants whose condition would otherwise go unnoticed and progress to serious disability.
1973
RPB convenes fourth National Science Writers Seminar.
A nationwide study of laser therapy, developed initially under a grant from RPB, is underway to determine conclusively its effectiveness in managing diabetic retinopathy and sickle cell retinopathy.
RPB-supported research produces a new technique for preserving donated corneal tissue so that the usefulness and clarity of transplant material may be greatly extended.
1974
In ten years, RPB's Laboratory Construction Program has more than tripled the amount of eye research lab space in the U.S.
A new surgical procedure – vitrectomy – is restoring sight to patients considered to be hopelessly blind from diabetic hemorrhages into the normally clear, gel-like vitreous that fills the central cavity of the eye (RPB Grant).
Acute, closed-angle glaucoma now can be cured permanently by surgery (RPB Grant).
Artificial corneas made of cured plastic are giving useful vision to hundreds of patients with otherwise hopeless corneal disease (RPB Grant).
William Friedkin, Hollywood film director of the award-winning films, "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection," pledges funds to provide grants for three researchers over as many years to assist them in the development of projects with unusual significance and promise in the saving of sight.
1975
The sixth and largest RPB-sponsored laboratory construction campaign begins in Houston, Texas, a joint venture of The Methodist Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Deborah Pavan Langston, Harvard ophthalmologist and recipient of an RPB-William Friedkin Award, produces a new antiviral agent designed to attack the herpes simplex virus with up to 500 times the penetrating ability of previous medications, less toxicity and allergic response, and with longer therapeutic effect.
RPB Research Professor Ted W. Reid, Ph.D., of Yale University School of Medicine, discovers that virus particles obtained from eye tumors can turn normal cells into melanoma cells, setting the stage for further inquiry into the mechanism by which this transformation takes place.
Dr. Jules Stein receives the Albert Lasker Public Service Award in New York City.
1976
Never before seen in the living patient, the infinitesimally thin corneal endothelium – a single layer of cells vital to vision – is now observable for study in microscopic detail through the specular microscope (RPB Grant – University of Florida).
Lew R. Wasserman elected president of RPB.
David F. Weeks, executive vice president, receives the distinguished Public Service Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology.
1977
The first Robert E. McCormick Award goes to Robert F. Miller, M.D., of Washington University to continue his work in the development of laboratory models for the study of the vertebrate retina.
The initial James S. Adams Award goes to Gordon L. Fain, Ph.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, for studies to assist in the evaluation of drugs for clinical use in the management of retinal diseases.
At Washington University, Theodore Krupin, M.D. (Manpower Award recipient) reports development of a revolutionary valve implant to stabilize intraocular pressure where filtering surgery has failed.
An RPB Research Manpower Award enables the establishment of an Ocular Motility Laboratory for the study of eye movements.
1978
RPB-sponsored Cullen Eye Institute of Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital celebrates its official dedication.
In their search for non-surgical means of halting the damaging blood vessel growth characteristic of diabetic retinopathy, scientists are buoyed by the discovery of what is called an "angiogenesis factor" in malignant cells – a substance exuded by such cells which causes blood vessels in the surrounding area to proliferate. Moreover, a chemical has been found that inhibits the factor's activity, thus opening a major field of promising research with potential significance to diabetes, sickle cell disease and cancer.
A new process called vitreous fluorophotometry now detects minute degrees of leakage from retinal vesselslong before the usual signs of damage become apparent.
A defect is demonstrated in a rare but significant form of retinitis pigmentosa – the absence of a protein essential for the metabolizing of Vitamin A in the eye, thus depriving the retinal cells of a substance indispensible to their function.
An answer to pigmentary glaucoma – an untypical form of the disease – is found with the development of a safe and effective drug that halts the loss of pigment that is characteristic in such patients.
Under RPB's professorship, Dr. Ted W. Reid (Yale University) is able to demonstrate a possible viral cause of human ocular tumors; he grows normal human retinal cells in culture without serum for the first time, using material extracted from retinoblastoma cells. The work opens the way for extensive study of human ocular cells grown in cultures.
1979
A nationwide survey, conducted by RPB, finds that 67 eye departments are planning extensive research lab renovation or construction. In response, RPB stimulates Congressional legislation to provide Federal assistance and Congress approves an initial $3 million to support those efforts in 1980.
RPB holds its seventh Science Writers Seminar.
Scientists seeking answers to how the body heals itself report that they have isolated a naturally occurring substance – called mesodermal growth factor (or MGF) – that greatly stimulates and accelerates the healing of corneal wounds.
Glaucoma patients are being treated with newly-developed drugs called beta-blockers that have emerged from the continuing search for effective ocular pressure-reducing agents.
Scientists supported by RPB programs are employing advanced technology to learn how fluids are transported through the eye, how intraocular pressure is maintained and disrupted, and what causes the "cupping" of the optic disc that is an observable sign of damage resulting in visual loss from glaucoma.
1980
Creation of the Lew and Edie Wasserman Permanent Endowment Fund for the purpose of supporting RPB's total efforts in the advancement of eye research.
The Dolly Green Scholars Award is established by Mrs. Green's gift to RPB.
Angiogenesis inhibitors that prevent abnormal blood vessel growth are identified by a team of scientists at Johns Hopkins University led by Arnall Patz, M.D. The finding provides a promising new area of research with potential application to the treatment and prevention of diabetic retinopathy and related disorders.
The first recipient of the Olga Keith Wiess Research Scholars Award is Dominic Man-Kit Lam, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine. The award will enable him to employ immunological procedures which he has devised to study retinal neurons microscopically in his search for answers to how we see and how retinal disorders may be cured or prevented.
The sources of color blindness and other neurophysiological disorders are explored by Robert W. Rodieck, Ph.D., of the University of Washington, employing a unique device he designed to study the visual cortex of color blind subjects. (Adams Scholar).
Glaucoma research produces a laboratory model of the pigmentary form of the disease, a major step in advancing knowledge of the disorder and its treatment.
1981
RPB founder and Chairman, Dr. Jules Stein, dies at the age of 85.
The Trustees of RPB establish the RPB-Jules Stein Award to honor the memory of RPB's founder and leader and to acknowledge outstanding ophthalmic achievement. The first recipients are Dr. Arnall Patz, of Johns Hopkins University, and Professor Norman Ashton, of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Thousands of youngsters owe their sight to these doctors' pioneering achievements in solving the mystery of retrolental fibroplasias, a blinding eye disease that destroyed the sight of premature infants before the scientists demonstrated the cause to be excessive oxygen administered routinely in nursery incubators.
RPB Foreign Fellows program begins. The program provides a limited number of fellowships for selected foreign candidates to assist their pursuit of research training in the U.S. with the explicit condition that they return to assured academic positions in their home countries upon completion of their training. Inaugural awards are given to Ricardo B. Akstein, M.D., of the University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Yitzchak J. Gordon, M.D., of Hadassah University (Israel).
The 1981 Nobel Prize for Medicine is awarded to two Harvard scientists whose work in vision research was recognized and assisted by RPB more than a decade ago. Drs. David Hubel and Torstein Wiesel were recognized for their brilliant contributions to fundamental knowledge of the brain's visual cortex.
The first Dolly Green Scholars Award is granted to Anita E. Hendrickson, Ph.D., University of Washington, internationally recognized for her studies in neuroanatomy and the development of the visual system from the time of birth.
Vision scientists are leading the search for effective agents against the destructive herpes virus now sweeping the country, and which is the major cause of corneal blindness. The development of a potent antiviral drug, acyclovir, approved by the FDA in 1981, was initially reported two years earlier at an RPB seminar.
1982
RPB sponsors a collaborative training program in public health ophthalmology conducted by the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Beginning in 1983, RPB will assist the training of up to five candidates from underdeveloped countries for the organization and implementation of blindness prevention programs and clinical research activities in medically deprived areas.
Lew R. Wasserman elected chairman. David F. Weeks becomes president.
Federal employees contribute $102,000 to RPB in the organization's first limited appeal to that sector of the public.
Using techniques never before available, scientists detect and define hidden eye problems in children too young to cooperate in standard tests of visual functions.
Operative procedures are performed to remove congenital cataracts in infants during the first few months of life; in one case, seven hours after birth.
A "living contact lens" – a piece of donor corneal tissue frozen and shaped to the visual needs of the patient – has been developed to correct refractive errors that cannot be resolved by other means. The procedure, called epikeratophakia, has been demonstrated effectively as a substitute for lenses removed in cataract surgery, and in correcting the vision of those with severe myopia and keratoconus.
Scientists have reason to believe that an autoimmune reaction is at fault in at least one form of uveitis and have implicated a substance called S-antigen as the triggering mechanism.
A new anti-cancer therapy for life-threatening eye tumors in children is undergoing preclinical study and evaluation. The treatment employs a photodynamically active drug and the application of visible red light.
1983
RPB increases annual support of its grantee institutions by 21%.
The attention of cancer scientists everywhere is drawn to basic studies in which researchers in retinoblastoma report having located the specific chromosomal linkage to the gene whose defect is responsible for the tumor.
First successful laser treatment of one form of age-related macular disease.
1984
RPB celebrates 25 years of preserving vision and restoring sight.
Doris Jones Stein, wife of the late Dr. Jules Stein, dies.
Jules and Doris Stein RPB Professorship established.
RPB convenes eighth National Science Writers Seminar.
1985
RPB increases by 25% its annual unrestricted research grant support to medical school departments of ophthalmology.
Glaucoma research at Boston University suggests that factors other than pigment in the trabecular meshwork are involved in the pigmentary form of the disease.
RPB funds are employed to initiate establishment of an electrophysiology laboratory for studies of functions and disorders of the retina at Columbia University. A second laboratory has been established for the application of immunology techniques to the clinical problems of uveitis.
RPB support assists studies of thermo-immunotherapy, a novel method for treating ocular tumors (Cornell University).
A radically new optical development – tandem scanning microscopy – will enhance ongoing studies of the cornea, permitting observation of subsurface cells through the entire thickness of the living cornea and conjunctiva. (Georgetown University)
RPB funds help establish a uveitis research laboratory in which various types of uveitis inflammation are being differentiated with a view to specific therapies (Oregon Health Sciences University).
Malignant melanoma of the uvea – a lethal eye tumor usually requiring removal of the eye – is responding to new treatment techniques using cyclotron-generated proton beam irradiation. Impressive results are reported in destroying the tumors and in patient retention of the affected eye. (Medical College of Virginia)
A new delivery system is being developed for a pressure-lowering medication derived from marijuana (West Virginia University).
1986
The seventh RPB-sponsored eye institute, at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon, will be the first eye research and treatment facility built in the Pacific Northwest.
RPB convenes eighth National Science Writers Seminar.
The identification of a human cancer gene which protects against a blinding and often fatal childhood eye tumor was reported by an RPB Special Research Scholar. For the first time, this made possible the prenatal diagnosis of susceptibility to the disease – retinoblastoma – in affected families.
1987
Annual grants to medical schools – most of them long-term recipients of RPB support – are increased by almost 20%.
Senior Scientific Investigator Awards established.
An RPB award-winning scientist defines the exact genetic defect that impairs color vision and induces uncontrollable blinking (nystagmus) in children; it can now be detected in carriers prenatally and with 100% accuracy.
An innovative technique of freezing abnormal blood vessels that threaten the sight of premature infants is the first successful therapy for retinopathy of prematurity.
A new drug for uveitis, cyclosporine A, is found not only to rapidly decrease persistent autoimmune inflammations of the inner eye, but to improve the visual acuity of many patients.
1988
A Gallup poll commissioned by RPB finds that 42% of Americans surveyed named blindness as "the worst" that can happen to them.
RPB conducts its 10th National Science Writers Seminar in Eye Research.
A formal review of six of the most prestigious ophthalmic journals conducted in 1988 by investigators at the Tufts University School of Medicine finds RPB cited more than any other national voluntary organization.
RPB continues to coordinate Congressional testimony for increased federal support of eye research.
RPB is named recipient of the 1988 Leslie Dana Gold Medal for the Prevention of Blindness. It is the first time, since 1925 when the prestigious international award was established, that it has been granted to an organization.
1989
RPB introduces Research Career Development Awards.
Dedication ceremonies are held for the newly-constructed Doris Jones Stein Eye Research Center, a companion to the Jules Stein Eye Institute built at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1965 under RPB sponsorship. This expansion of the Stein Institute is made possible in part by a special four-year grant from RPB.
1990
RPB launches a semimonthly newspaper column based on papers presented at the RPB National Science Writers Seminar. The column, under the byline of Harold F. Spalter, M.D., reaches 3,500 daily and weekly newspapers across the nation.
Specific mutations in the gene rhodopsin, a protein that plays a key role in night vision, are identified in at least two forms of retinitis pigmentosa – vital information that could lead to a better understanding of RP and its eventual cure.
Children who need surgery to correct strabismus are found to do better after surgery if they wear special prism glasses beforehand.
Scatter laser treatment is shown to greatly reduce the risk of hemorrhage and visual loss from sickle cell retinopathy.
1991
Since 1960, RPB has channeled more than $100 million into eye research.
Samuel G. Jacobson, M.D., Ph.D., a Dolly Green Research Scholar (University of Miami), identifies previously unknown patterns of dysfunction caused by genetic mutations in a retinal pigment that helps transmit light signals along the optic nerve to the brain.
The lab of Stein Professor Dr. Wolfgang B. Baehr (Baylor), in a significant breakthrough, identifies the molecular defect responsible for the rd mutation in the mouse and generates a novel mutant mouse with a retinal degeneration.
1992
RPB increases its grant support for eye research by 28% over the previous year.
RPB supported Casey Eye Institute at the Oregon Health Sciences University opens.
Dr. Jean Bennett, University of Pennsylvania, receives an RPB Career Development Award to study gene expression in retinal degeneration. It is the first of four awards Dr. Bennett is to receive from RPB, all supporting work which, in 2007, results in the first use of gene therapy to restore sight in three patients with a form of retinitis pigmentosa.
An RPB Senior Scientific Investigator identifies a protein that helps the eye's lens maintain its transparency by preventing cataracts. (Joseph Horwitz, Ph.D.)
Another RPB Senior Scientific Investigator discovers that daily intake of proper amounts of Vitamin A can prolong useful vision in patients with retinitis pigmentosa.
1993
RPB's Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship program established.
Sybil B. Harrington Endowment established.
Development of noninvasive instruments to measure the cornea in infants with congenital glaucoma.
The identification of a gene responsible for glaucoma and the successful mapping of genes for two forms of macular degeneration and three types of corneal dystrophy.
The successful culturing of the retina, an important step toward realizing the goal of retinal transplants.
1994
RPB is honored for guiding the movement that led Congress to establish the NEI as a separate entity within the National Institutes of Health at an exhibit commemorating the Institute's 25th anniversary.
RPB researchers isolate the first human congenital cataract gene which will be used to examine the efficacy of gene therapy for cataracts.
RPB researchers devise an implant that time-releases medication within the eye, eliminating the daily risk of infection posed by costly intravenous treatment used to treat cytomegalovirus retinitis (CMV), a blinding condition which affects 25% of AIDS patients.
1995
Lew R. Wasserman Awards established.
President Clinton conveys to Lew R. Wasserman the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian award.
1996
RPB Research Sabbatical Grant initiated.
RPB distributes to ophthalmologists nationwide complimentary eye test cards which their patients can use to check their visual acuity.
RPB researchers:
- Improve extended-wear contact lenses to eliminate corneal infections;
- Develop a promising new drug to lower eye pressure in glaucoma patients;
- Link smoking to macular degeneration;
- Find that a single dose antibiotic cures trachoma, the world's leading infectious cause of blindness; and
- Discover color-vision genes previously unrecognized by scientists in the field, leading to a genetic test that predicts the presence and severity of color blindness.
1997
RPB conducts its 14th National Science Writers Seminar in Eye Research.
RPB convenes a meeting of 30 preeminent basic and clinical vision scientists to assess progress and chart a future course of action in cataract and lens research.
RPB researchers:
- Clone a gene causing Stargardt's disease, a rare childhood form of macular degeneration, and discover a gene involved in age-related macular degeneration;
- Confirm that exposure to sunlight's ultraviolet-B rays is a risk factor for cataracts; and
- Demonstrate that motor neurons play a role in a congenital eye movement disorder, yielding insight into possible treatment.
1998
RPB convenes a meeting of preeminent basic and clinical scientists whose work applies directly or indirectly to the investigation of macular degeneration. A report on the meeting, entitled Latest Findings in Macular Degeneration Research, is distributed nationally.
RPB researchers:
- Develop a computer-based device to screen young children for the presence of strabismus (crossed eyes);
- Identify nerve-protecting compounds that could prevent blindness from retinal degenerations; and
- Find factors that prompt growth of unwanted blood vessels in macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy and, in a separate study, a drug to arrest this drug.
Lew R. Wasserman becomes Chairman Emeritus, David F. Weeks becomes Chairman, Diane S. Swift becomes President.
1999
Laser and dye treatment known as photodynamic therapy (PDT) is shown, in some cases, to stabilize vision of selected patients with the neovascular or "wet" form of age-related macular degeneration.
A new, non-invasive self-monitoring device allows patients with diabetic retinopathy to track this ocular complication and, when indicated, to take action to limit further damage and vision loss.
RPB support is helping the development of wireless video glasses that transmit signals to a laser-powered microchip implanted in the retina which may someday give blind patients a measure of sight.
Scientists find an abnormality in the lipid layer of tears which may be the critical factor leading to increased tear evaporation.
A Senior Scientific Investigator at UCLA develops a way to watch proteins "dance" in retinal cells while they are processing light, giving scientists their first glimpse at how visual signals are "shaped" in the eye.
2000
To accelerate age-related macular degeneration research, RPB convenes its second brainstorming meeting at which leading scientists share ideas and evaluate the wide scope of investigations underway.
RPB Physician-Scientist Award created to support M.D.'s engaged in clinical eye research.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the first drug, verteporfin, to treat AMD.
Researchers test a retinal prosthesis.
Scientists assess blood filtering as a way to remove fats and proteins to improve blood vessel function and blood flow to the eye.
Cataract patients who receive new, multifocal lens implants report better overall vision than those who receive single-distance correcting lenses.
2001
RPB-Walt and Lilly Disney Special Scholars Award for Amblyopia Research is announced.
RPB hosts a meeting of internationally-known scientists to review the latest findings on glaucoma and neurodegeneration (the death of the optic nerve and related cells that result in vision loss).
RPB research teams at three universities collaborate on gene therapy that gives partial sight to three dogs born blind. The work, years in the making, heralds a new age of hope in eye research and spurs gene therapy initiatives in RPB-supported laboratories throughout the U.S. focused on other blinding diseases.
Scientists test immunosuppressive drugs to treat uveitis.
2002
RPB holds its 16th Science Writers Seminar.
Research teams continue to test compounds designed to inhibit vessel growth in patients with the wet form of AMD.
RPB-supported scientists discover that a bacteria living in the parasitic worm that causes river blindness plays an important role in corneal scarring, a finding that could lead to new strategies for combating the disease, which has blinded 250,000 people in Africa and South America.
Lew R. Wasserman dies at the age of 89.
2003
Scientists discover that among individuals with the early or intermediate stages of the disease, high intake of dietary fats and fat-containing food groups increases the risk of progression to a stage of advanced AMD associated with visual loss; fish and nut consumption reduced the risk.
Researchers find that oral antiviral drugs are critical to prevent long-term eye damage in patients with eye shingles (herpes zoster ophthalmicus).
In a series of breakthrough discoveries, investigators demonstrate connections between eye diseases of the inner retina and optic nerve and sleeping disorders involving a complex, non-visual photoreceptive system in the inner retina and areas of the brain involved in unconscious activities.
Researchers find that retinoblastoma can be treated successfully by a combination of high-dose chemotherapy, radiation therapy and transplantation of the patient's own blood-producing stem cells.
An RPB-supported lab finds that corneal stroma cells can change character and become wound-healing cells, secreting scar tissue that can cause permanent blindness.
Further analysis of data from the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study has led to the discovery that intraocular pressure measurement is directly related to corneal thickness.
A new study shows that the anti-HIV drug regimen called highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) saves eyesight as well as lives.
Scientists discover that a new protein can block the communication between immune cells, resulting in prevention of the development of uveitis.
2004
RPB reformulates its patient-oriented newsletter, Eye Research News.
Macugen, a treatment for wet AMD based on earlier, RPB-supported research, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration, bringing new hope to those already suffering from the disease and the almost 1 million people over the age of 55 years in the U.S. who are expected to develop AMD across the next five years.
RPB-supported research is the first to suggest that reducing caloric intake can delay the age-related degeneration of the lens – and that it should probably be started as early as age 30.
An RPB Career Development awardee introduces the concept of "maculoplasty," an innovative potential therapy for macular degeneration that involves reconstruction of the damaged subretinal architecture.
Scientists supported by RPB identify a novel molecular classification for uveal melanoma that strongly predicts which patients will develop metastatic disease.
Researchers determine that a clinically safe drug, minocycline, which has been shown to protect nerve cells in degenerative diseases of the brain, is also highly protective of the eye's photoreceptor cells.
RPB investigators have confirming evidence that exposure to light leads to loss of vision in a dominant form of retinitis pigmentosa.
With funding from RPB, scientists discover a previously unknown immune response that causes the body to reject corneal transplants.
Scientists operating with an RPB grant determine that a drug, originally derived from a South African shrub, can be effective in reducing the growth of blood vessels necessary for the growth of retinoblastoma tumors – without threat of toxicity to the surrounding eye tissue or to the body system.
An RPB scientist uncovers evidence of a special ability of the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis to bind to the cells lining blood vessels within the eye.
Investigators, for the first time, use a non-invasive imaging technique to study the structure of uveitis indicators called keratic precipates.
An RPB Disney Award amblyopia researcher pioneers the use of positron emission tomography to study brain processing in amblyopia.
2005
RPB researchers determine that two genes – both connected to the body's immune response against infection – play a role in 74% of AMD cases.
Researchers discover that people with a specific AMD-related gene who smoke the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes a day for 10 years have a 69-times greater risk of developing wet AMD.
In another RPB-supported finding, excessive iron in the retina may be a risk factor for AMD.
With RPB funds, scientists develop genotyping microarrays, also called "disease chips," for screening of patients with all forms of retinitis pigmentosa.
RPB investigators develop a gene therapy for the inherited blind-deaf disease Usher1B, a major type of retinitis pigmentosa.
An international team of scientists, including a member of RPB's Scientific Advisory Panel, identifies all of the proteins of the human cornea.
Scientists discover the presence of a very large compound produced in the tear gland (called mucin) that contributes to protection of the ocular surface.
An RPB investigator establishes the ophthalmic usefulness of cryotherapy, formerly used mainly in dermatology, in safely and effectively treating eye tumors.
2005 marks Dr. Harold F. Spalter's 40 years of volunteer commitment with Research to Prevent Blindness.
2006
Working with a grant from RPB, a researcher solves one of the great mysteries of ocular science: the biological mechanism that keeps the transparent tissue of the cornea free of blood vessels.
RPB scientists are instrumental in stopping a world-wide epidemic of a previously rare, aggressive form of fungal corneal infection, fusarium keratitis. The outbreaks were among wearers of soft contact lenses who were using a specific, one-step contact lens solution which was pulled from shelves around the world.
RPB investigators report the discovery of another gene tied to AMD, called HTRA1, which significantly raises one's risk of developing the disease.
RPB resources are used to develop a polymer that will allow future versions of the artificial retina to contain many more electrodes, producing greater visual information.
RPB-supported scientists give eye care specialists and potential glaucoma patients a precise, predictive model that will identify patients at high risk of developing glaucoma within five years of receiving an evaluation.
Supported by RPB, a new chemotherapeutic approach to retinoblastoma greatly reduces the size of tumors, allowing patients to save the affected eye, without causing side effects associated with standard chemotherapy.
2007
RPB creates a new, user-friendly web site, www.rpbusa.org, with animations, extensive research archives, an online store for print materials, a Find An Eye Care Professional service, and the first online, self-test for color blindness.
Researchers use gene therapy to safely restore vision in three young adults with a form of retinitis pigmentosa known as Leber's congenital amaurosis.
Research teams at two RPB-supported labs report success in curing color blindness with gene therapy.
RPB scientists demonstrate the possibility of chemically signaling the eye's own resources to regenerate retina cells, without transplanting retinal tissue or stem cells.
An RPB investigator determines a way to predict patients at-risk of developing
ectasia after LASIK surgery, providing a major improvement over current screening strategies.
Researchers supported by an RPB grant discover that special tissue glue is a superior alternative to sutures in eye muscle surgery to correct strabismus.
David F. Weeks, Chairman of the Board, receives the 2007 Kupfer Award for distinguished public service and national leadership in advancing ophthalmic science.
The Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology recognizes RPB for its continued commitment and service to AUPO and academic ophthalmology.
2008
RPB launches an e-newsletter to grow its public education capacity.
Stein Professor James L. Funderburgh, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, develops a donor-derived stem cell treatment that restores clarity to opaque corneas damaged by disease. This is the first evidence that stem cells can remodel human tissue and a potential first step toward engineering entire body parts.
RPB researcher Krystel Huxlin, Ph.D., develops a computer system that exercises the brain, restoring sight lost from the damage caused by stroke, by forcing it to compensate.
An RPB team helps identify a gene central to understanding how the developing brain creates the right kind of neurons when and where they are needed. This is a first step to repairing or reversing many diseases of the nervous system.
According to an RPB-supported study, a person who has a thyroid condition is at an increased risk of developing glaucoma.
RPB investigators develop an eye drop treatment to prevent the loss of visual function caused by diabetes.
A long-term study of people aged over 48 indicates that those taking diuretics, antidepressants or oral steroids are at great risk of developing dry eye, while those taking ACE inhibitors are at decreased risk.
Children whose eyes are misaligned (strabismus) and point outward (exotropia) are at significantly increased risk of developing mental illness by early adulthood, according to findings of an RPB-supported study. Those with inward deviating eyes (esotropia) showed no increase in the incidence of mental illnesses.
New research identifies long-sought myopia genes (the same genes responsible for color blindness) and confirms that myopia is primarily a genetic disorder. Also, exposure to red light activates myopia's genetic mechanism which cannot be treated with glasses or LASIK surgery.
Researchers develop a new surgical instrument to cut down on the high rate of repeat surgery to correct in-turned lashes, one of the symptoms of trachoma-related trichiasis, the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide.
2009
RPB distributes a Guide to Eye Health, containing research that points to modifiable, lifestyle risk factors for eye disease.
RPB researchers' finding that glaucoma likely originates in the brain represents a paradigm shift in the current understanding of the disease and opens the door to neuroprotective therapies.
RPB researchers' use of gene therapy to cure color blindness in the lab is cited as the No.3 scientific discovery of 2009 by Time Magazine. Successful tests of gene therapy have opened the door to treating a range of eye diseases. Clinical trials are being formed to treat patients with achromatopsia (inability to distinguish colors), retinoschisis (splitting of the retina) and diabetic retinopathy.
RPB researchers are focusing on a new type of patient-specific stem cells that eliminate rejection by the body's immune system. Called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), they are made by inserting stem cell genes into skin fibroblasts (the most common type of cell found in connective tissue). All seven classes of retinal cells found in the eye, including functioning photoreceptor cells, have been grown using this method.
An RPB researcher studying blood vessel development in the eye translates those findings into a breakthrough development in kidney regeneration.
RPB investigators finalize the world's first complete volume of retinal neuronal connectivity, providing a thorough blueprint of how the retina is constructed and allowing science, for the first time in 150 years of study, to define what is normal for retinal circuitry.
Investigators confirm that compounds called polyphenols (found in plants, including berries and tea) may assist in delaying, slowing or treating certain types of retinal degenerations, including retinitis pigmentosa.
RPB researchers take the first step in creating a technique to remove fatty by products that accumulate over long periods in the retinal pigment epithelium and contribute to the development of AMD.
RPB-supported findings reveal for the first time that allergic asthma is a risk factor for corneal graft rejection. The findings also identify therapeutic targets for neutralizing immune factors that contribute to corneal graftrejection.
Scientists identify a specific protein in the lacrimal gland that can cause dry eye in Sjogren's syndrome.
RPB researchers suggest that drinking and smoking may accelerate the risk of AMDwith increasing age, and that even smokers aged 80 and over should quit or face an ever-rising risk of macular degeneration.
A study confirms that omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish such as salmon, mackerel or tuna, and in walnuts, flax seed and other foods) can prevent and treat retinopathyand improve retinal function in type 2 diabetes.
