Faculty

The ocular surface is the layer of cells at the front of the eye – those cells that come in contact with the outside world.

Conventional anti-cancer treatment has generally utilized chemotherapy. This type of treatment uses relatively non-specific agents that target growing cells. In contrast, the anti-angiogenic therapies should target only the growing blood vessels and therefore should have many fewer side effects

Carbohydrates have been traditionally considered only as sources of energy for the living organism. However, during the last few years, it has become evident that carbohydrates also play important roles in determining cell function.

The optic nerve is a cable of nerve fibers that carry electrical impulses, containing visual information, from the eye to the brain. In adult mammals, any damage to the optic nerve caused by injury or disease tends to be permanent

The Institute began its collaboration with the Department of Defense (DoD) in the 1990s, thanks to the hard work of Trustee Dr. Donald Korb, who was able to interest the Massachusetts congressional delegation in the research conducted at the Institute

A key objective of current behavioral vision research concerns the early detection, diagnosis, and monitoring of visual impairment.

Inflammation is one of the most common, and evolutionarily conserved, responses in the body. Injury (mechanical or chemical), infection, surgery, toxin exposure, allergy, growth of many cancers, etc, all lead to inflammation.

Dr. Delori has pioneered novel imaging techniques of the retina and has developed advanced optical techniques to study the role of lipofuscin and melanin pigments in the retinal pigmented epithelium as well as new ways to measure the distribution of macular pigment in the neural retina

The cornea is the clear, outermost layer of the eye, and is considered to be the “window” of the eye because it controls and focuses the entry of light into the eye.

Angiogenesis is the end result of an elegantly orchestrated sequence of distinct events. Stable, quiescent blood vessels undergo destabilization, and this transition is associated with a loss of the cells that are normally attached to the outside of blood vessels.

A retina starving for oxygen and nutrients will attempt to grow new blood vessels. When this happens, diabetic retinopathy will have become proliferative retinopathy...

Dr. Peli's principal research interests are image processing in relation to visual function and clinical psychophysics in low vision rehabilitation, image understanding and evaluation of display-vision interaction.

It is known that while adaptive immune cells, like T lymphocytes, respond to antigen-specific signals by differentiating into effector cells, innate immune cells, like macrophages, NK and NKT cells, respond immediately by producing cytokines that bias the kind of adaptive immune response that follows.

Upon wounding of the epithelium, the epithelial cells must somehow cover and repopulate the wound site and restore its barrier function.

Sex and sex steroid hormones are critical factors in the regulation of ocular surface tissues, as well as in the pathogenesis of dry eye syndromes...

Our research project, Molecular Solutions to Low Vision Resulting from Battlefield Injuries, will aim to  determine the efficacy of using soluble Fas Ligand (sFasL) to prevent and/or treat sight-threatening corneal inflammation and scarring induced by trauma.

Through immunochemical and biological analysis of aqueous humor, the fluid filling the anterior chamber of the eye, we have identified several potent immunoregulating and immunosuppressing neuropeptides that 1) suppress the activation of effector Th1 cells

During the last 5 years, work in my lab has established that neural stem or progenitor cells overcome the barrier to morphological integration present in the mature mammalian retina.

To identify additional molecular pathways that could become therapeutic targets, I have used the same approach to identify all the changes induced by diabetes in retinal vessels –the ultimate and clinically relevant retinal target of diabetes.

There are many different types of eye infections – viral, bacterial, fungal, and amoebic. These infections can affect different parts of the eye

The human eye is extremely vulnerable to direct laser injury and maintaining good vision is an important determinant in success of military operations, and even survival of military personnel in theatre.

By studying the significance of selected genes in inducing the unique ocular immune response, novel immunologic mechanisms displayed by eye-derived APCs are being explored

Central vision impairment (the most common visual impairment in "western" countries due to the prevalence of age-related macular degeneration) causes problems with reading, face recognition and watching television and movies.