Research Roundup
Erica Shelton (OD/MS’18) and Dean VanNasdale, OD, PhD, have been awarded a contract from the Ohio Optometric Foundation for an evaluation of the efficacy, acceptance, and areas of improvement in the Statewide Children’s Vision Initiative (CVI), which is managed by the Ohio Optometric Foundation. The program evaluation uses the Open Systems Model to identify outputs and outcomes that will help shareholders measure the impact of CVI pediatric vision care programs throughout the state of Ohio. With growing pediatric vision impairment rates and low eye care reported following failed school-based vision screenings, pediatric eye care programs within schools and communities have gained popularity across Ohio in the hope of improving pediatric eye care access. This evaluation will allow shareholders to measure how their programs are upholding their intended standard and will serve as an example for other states that are interesting in growing their pediatric vision care programs.
Congratulations to Lisa Jordan, PhD, on her Department of Defense award for Development of Patient Reported Outcome Measure, Validation of Clinical Outcome Measures, Natural History, and Intervention for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Related (mTBI) Vision Disorders. She will lead the coordinating center component for this large, three-part study, which is designed to address the current lack of a validated patient-reported outcome measure and a strong clinical outcome that can be used in a randomized clinical trial evaluating interventions. This project will also include a pilot study of vergence/accommodative therapy that will also lead to better understanding of the natural history of mTBI-related convergence insufficiency in adults.
In a collaboration with Matthew Reilly, PhD, in the College of Engineering, Phillip Yuhas (OD/MS’14, PhD’19) received a Pilot Award from the Chronic Brain Injury Program at Ohio State. The two-year, $50,000 project will assess the electrophysiological response of different classes of retinal ganglion cells to rescue small molecules administered after traumatic optic neuropathy in rats. This work is part of a larger body of research aimed at preserving vision after traumatic head injury using drugs and therapeutics that are already FDA-approved and have applications in the eye.
Heather Chandler, PhD, was awarded a new five-year grant ($933,230) for her study, Targeting the multicellular process of corneal regeneration and vascularization to enhance outcome of cornea transplantation. Interventions to improve the outcome of corneal transplantation are needed for patients that are at high risk of graft failure. Using their novel protein therapeutics and topical delivery formulation, this project aims to translate their prior work on improving corneal healing into a potential safe and effective therapeutic to improve the quality of corneal transplants and reduce graft failures. This work will focus on how our protein therapeutic regulates inflammation, fibrosis, and vascularization in corneal transplants.
Deyue Yu, PhD, was awarded a $40,000 research award from the Ohio Lions Eye Research Foundation for her study, Enhancing Contrast Sensitivity Function in Older Adults with and without Low Vision. Contrast sensitivity function, a measurement of how sensitive people are to contrast at different spatial frequencies, is a more accurate indicator than visual acuity of performance in everyday visual activities, and development of interventions to enhance contrast sensitivity function holds promise for improving the quality of life of those with impaired vision. Dr. Yu proposes to evaluate a visual perceptual learning paradigm to determine its effectiveness in improving contrast sensitivity function in older adults with and without low vision.
Congratulations to Luxi Zhang on the award of an Ohio Lions Eye Research Foundation graduate student fellowship for her work, Single-Cell RNA-Sequencing to Study the Protective Effects of MG53 on the Cornea! Ms. Zhang, whose advisor is Heather Chandler, PhD, researches the molecular mechanisms that underlie injury to the cornea by nitrogen mustard. She will utilize a newly developed technique to explore gene expression profiles in corneal cells at a single-cell resolution after exposure to nitrogen mustard to better understand the complex mechanisms of both injury and recovery. Her study will also utilize a protein, MG53, that the Chandler lab is exploring as a potential treatment for corneal injury.
