Ocular injuries
Injuries to the eye can present special challenges. They may result from accidents that occur in the workplace, in the home, on the sports field or on the battlefield through blunt trauma or through exposure to chemicals, lasers or heat. In order to preserve vision, the eye must remain clear. This special requirement makes many of the body's normal mechanisms for healing wounds abnormally destructive in the ocular context. Inflammation and its resulting scarring, very helpful responses to injury in other parts of the body, in the eye can lead to blindness. Also, the optic nerve and retina are extensions of the central nervous system, and many of their specialized cells, which are critical for vision, do not regenerate once damaged. Non-healing eye wounds can result in infection, ulceration and scarring. Efforts of individual laboratories are enhanced by the following research focus groups:
Military Vision Research Program
Leader: Darlene A. Dartt, Ph.D.
The human eye is the most important sensor on the modern battlefield. Currently, over 16% of battlefield injuries include the eye. The result is often vision loss and blindness. Schepens Eye Research Institute is working with military ophthalmologists and optometrists, and researchers within the Department of Defense, to meet this important battlefield need.
Battlefield eye injuries result largely from blast trauma and from intentional and accidental exposure to laser light. The Military Vision Research Program’s research is focused on improving the treatment of these injuries to save vision following battlefield injury, as well as developing vision enhancement devices to meet the needs of our military partners. To read more about the Military Vision Program, click here.
Retinal Laser Injury
Leader: Dong Feng Chen, M.D, Ph.D.
This group grew out of collaborations with the Department of Defense, and works to collaboratively study the pathologenesis of retinal laser injury. To read more about Retinal Laser Injury, click here.
Ocular Immunology
Leader: Joan Stein-Streilein, Ph.D.
This group seeks to advance understanding of the nature and regulation of the immune system of the eye, and to unravel the underlying mechanisms of ocular inflammation due to injury, infection, autoimmune disease, tumors, and corneal and retinal transplantation. To read more about Ocular Immunology, click here.
Lids to Lens
Leader: James Zieske, Ph.D.
Disease and injury
to the anterior surface of the eye are the leading causes of visits to
physicians for medical eye care in the United States; they rank among
the most painful of eye conditions and can lead to disability and
blindness. Major clinical problems of the surface of the eye include
ocular surface drying, tear film abnormalities, and related sequelae;
ocular surface wounds with resultant pathology and scarring; corneal
dysfunction dystrophies and inherited disease; inflammatory disease;
and external ocular infections. The development of any artificial
cornea is also a focus of this group. To read more about Lids to Lens, click here.
Glaucoma Interest Group
Leader: Mara Lorenzi, M.D.
The goal of the group is to make glaucoma a focus of interdisciplinary interest at the
Institute, with a declared commitment to scientific pursuits that are clinically relevant.
Toward this goal, the membership includes Schepens scientists from
different disciplines and fields of interest such as neuroscience,
immunology, aging, diabetes, and low-vision. The group includes a
clinical expert in glaucoma, Louis Pasquale, MD. Optic nerve injury
and regeneration are among the group's areas of interest. To read more about the Glaucoma Interest Group, click here.
