RPB Funding Helps Researchers Revive Light-Sensing Cells in Organ Donor Eyes

Researchers have long been constrained by the models (including animal models) that they are able to use for research into human diseases; sometimes, research in these models does not translate well to human therapies. But today, researchers from the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah, including Frans Vinberg, PhD, a recipient of an RPB / Dr. H. James and Carole Free Career Development Award, and collaborators from Scripps Research, have published research in Nature showing that they have revived light-sensing neuron cells in organ donor eyes, opening up new research avenues using human donor eyes.

According to a University of Utah press release, the researchers have restored communication between these cells as part of a series of discoveries that stand to transform both brain and vision research. 

RPB is proud to have supported this groundbreaking work with Dr. Vinberg’s RPB / Dr. H. James and Carole Free Career Development Award and an Unrestricted Grant to the University of Utah Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

Read more and watch a short video from the University of Utah 

May 11, 2022