Research to Prevent Blindness’ mission and leadership makes the eyecare of today—and tomorrow—possible.
For decades, RPB grants have provided funding to create new discoveries in vision science. Learn about our current grants, as well as our exceptional grantees.
What do we know about common eye diseases? Find out here, in RPB’s new Learning Center for patients and families.
Visit our Media Center for timely updates—in text and video formats—on emerging research and vision science news.
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Dry eye is a chronic medical condition that develops when the eye's tear film does not lubricate and protect the eye's outer surface.
Our Story
Our Mission
Our Work
Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) was founded in 1960 by Dr. Jules Stein to fund, coordinate and promote vision research in the United States. Dr. Stein, an ophthalmologist-turned-entertainment-magnate, knew that providing sustained investment to both individual researchers and the research enterprise was essential to reducing, and ultimately ending, blindness.
In light of Dr. Stein’s directive, RPB’s mission is to preserve and restore vision by supporting research to develop treatments, preventives and cures for all conditions that damage and destroy sight. It has been laser-focused on this mission for six decades.
To achieve this mission, RPB provides approximately $11 million in research grants a year to outstanding individual scientists and research-focused departments of ophthalmology.
This strategic support is evident in every major advance in the eyecare field in the past 60+ years, improving and saving the vision of countless people. See the timeline below to learn more about our work.
Brian F. Hofland, PhD
RPB President
Message from the President
“At RPB, we fund the best scientists, in the most effective labs, who are asking the most important questions. Every person with an eye condition who can still drive, see a loved one’s face or read a book thanks to research is a win for us. Thank you for being our partner in saving sight.”
Our History
1960: The Start
A nonprofit, Research to Prevent Blindness, is created by Dr. Jules Stein to strategically and effectively stimulate more intensive and extensive eye research across the country. RPB officials convince Congress to direct $1 million to blindness research – the first amount ever specifically allocated for this purpose.
1968: A Historic Win
Capping a five-year initiative by RPB, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs legislation creating the National Institute of Health’s National Eye Institute, the largest funder of vision research in the United States.
1974: Research On The Rise
RPB’s Laboratory Construction Program more than triples the amount of eye research lab space in the U.S. With RPB support: vitrectomy restores sight to patients who are blind from diabetic hemorrhages; acute closed-angle glaucoma is cured by surgery; and corneas made of plastic provide vision for people with untreatable corneal disease.
1980: Blood Vessel Breakthrough
RPB-supported researchers identify factors that prevent abnormal blood vessel growth, opening a new area of research with potential to treat and prevent diabetic retinopathy and related disorders—a discovery which leads to today’s anti-VEGF injections to treat wet macular degeneration.
1987: Tackling Inflammation
A new drug for uveitis, cyclosporine A, decreases autoimmune inflammations of the inner eye and improves visual acuity of many patients.
1996: Vision Research Takes Off
RPB-supported researchers: improve extended-wear contact lenses to eliminate corneal infections; develop a new drug to lower eye pressure in glaucoma patients; link smoking to macular degeneration; and find that a single dose antibiotic treats trachoma, the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide.
2006: Ocular Cancer Advance
A new approach to retinoblastoma greatly reduces the size of tumors, allowing patients to save the affected eye, without the side effects of standard chemotherapy.
2008: Stem Cell Potential
An RPB Stein Professor develops a donor-derived stem cell treatment that restores clarity to diseased corneas–the first evidence that stem cells can remodel human tissue.
2012: AMD Progress
A gene therapy for both the wet and dry forms of macular degeneration, developed by RPB researchers, enters human clinical trials.
2015: Emerging Threat, Thwarted
Using flexible funds from RPB’s Unrestricted Grant to the Emory Department of Ophthalmology, a doctor successfully treats an Ebola first responder with corticosteroids and an experimental antiviral. He subsequently develops a treatment protocol that is rolled out in Africa, saving the sight of thousands of Ebola survivors.
2018: Restoring Vision
RPB-supported researchers and physicians administer the first FDA-approve gene therapy for inherited blindness; in just weeks, the patient (a 13-year-old boy), had significant improvements in his vision. The boy is thrilled to get back to activities he loves.
2022: After Death, Light
RPB-supported researchers published ground-breaking work in Nature showing that they can revive light-sensing neuron cells in donor eyes (restoring communication between cells). This work has the potential to transform brain and vision research.
2024: Moonshot in Sight
The Advanced Research Project Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced its initiative to restore vision to people who are blind through functional whole eye transplantation, which aims enable a transplanted eye to achieve sight.
RPB-supported departments of ophthalmology at Stanford University, the University of Colorado, and the University of Miami Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, are key locations for the ARPA-H work. Additionally many RPB individual grantees will contribute to this work via their expertise, honed through years of past and current RPB funding.
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