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As Requested: A List of Current Clinical Trials for Retinal Degenerations
Without a doubt, as chief research officer at FFB, I get more questions about clinical trials – also known as human studies – than any other topic. So, I thought it would be useful to provide a list of...
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Top 12 Research Advancements of 2012
At the Foundation Fighting Blindness, we are always looking forward. Our scientists are continually focused on achieving the next sight-saving breakthrough, and our donors and volunteers are always...
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Found in Translation: Advancing Treatments Into Human Studies
Photo courtesy of the National Eye Institute I am always excited when a new research paper comes across my desk reporting on an emerging treatment that has saved or restored vision in an animal or...
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Orphan Drugs Get Special Treatment
You wouldn’t think that being called an “orphan” is a good thing. But for developers of treatments for rare diseases — including inherited retinal conditions — “orphan” status provides valuable...
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Moving Vision-Saving Treatments Out to the People Who Need Them
“Translational research” is the mantra for many of the retinal scientists funded by the Foundation Fighting Blindness. In a nutshell, the phrase refers to the advancement of vision-saving therapies...
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Staying Alive: Saving Retinal Cells to Preserve Vision
Researchers are developing a number of promising treatment approaches for blinding retinal diseases, which include: correcting genetic defects; replacing lost retinal cells with new ones; and...
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Proving a Vision-Saving Treatment Works
I am very excited about ProgSTAR, the Foundation’s new study monitoring and documenting the progress of vision loss and retinal changes in people with Stargardt disease. On the surface, the study might...
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Patient Registries Help Advance Research for Rare Diseases
Rare disease research is challenging, because patient information about the conditions is inherently limited. Patient recruitment for clinical trials can be especially difficult, because so few people...
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The Foundation’s Center Grants Foster Essential Retinal Research Collaborations
Question: How many researchers does it take to develop a retinal-disease treatment? (No, this isn’t a politically incorrect joke.) The answer is near the end of this article, but no looking ahead!...
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A Sight-Saving ‘Fishing Expedition’
Could 500,000 zebrafish lead to the discovery of treatments that prevent vision loss? Jeff Mumm, Ph.D., a retinal researcher at Johns Hopkins University, thinks so. He’s devised an innovative test that...
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Total Blindness and Non-24 Sleep Disorder
Recently, you may have been hearing and seeing commercials for a blindness-related sleep disorder called Non-24. In the radio ads I’ve heard, the narrator says he’s totally blind and suffers from the...
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ARVO 2014: European Collaboration Developing Cross-Cutting, Vision-Saving...
One of the most intriguing reports on therapy development at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology came from a European collaborative project called DRUGSFORD,...
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Low-Hanging Fruit: Repurposing Drugs to Treat Retinal Diseases
Many years ago, while picking apples with my uncle, he advised me to “pick the low-hanging fruit.” That way, he told me, you can fill your basket faster and not be as tired at the end of the day. I...
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A Spice for the Eyes
Turmeric, also known as “the golden spice,” has been around for more than 4,000 years. In India, where Radha Ayyagari, Ph.D., grew up, it’s used widely as both a food spice and an herbal medicine for...
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The Top Research Advancements of 2014: How Fast Can We Go?
As we approach 2015, it’s inspiring to look back on 2014 and recount the numerous advancements we’ve made in developing vision-saving treatments and cures. When I joined the Foundation nearly a decade...
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CME – What It Is, and Why People with Retinal Diseases Should Know About It
In this Q&A, Gerald Fishman, M.D., a world-renowned clinical researcher and longstanding member of FFB’s Scientific Advisory Board, discusses cystoid macular edema (CME), a potentially damaging...
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Need-to-Know Information about Clinical Trials
With about 15 clinical trials underway for inherited retinal diseases, and several more poised to begin in a few years, patients are eager to sign up for access to potential vision-saving therapies....
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Sun and Funds: FFB’s Annual Summer Campaign
We all know that Memorial Day is not, technically, the first day of summer. But seeing as we like to stretch summer out as much as possible, it only makes sense to kick it off… well… a few weeks early....
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The Challenge Continues: FFB Chairman Gordon Gund is Interviewed on CNBC
Gordon Gund, who’s held in extremely high esteem by people inside and outside the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB), has been completely blind for decades. He lost his eyesight to a disease called...
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The Gift of Sight – Matched!
It’s holiday time, the giving season, when people not only buy gifts for family, friends and co-workers, but also donate to worthy causes—of which there are many. But, if you’ll permit me, I’d like to...
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