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Joan W. Miller Part of Expert Panel that Recommends Strategy Shift to Discover Dry AMD Treatments

July 26, 2019

A large-scale, collaborative, systems biology approach is needed to expedite the discovery of treatments for dry age-related macular degeneration, according to a report by a working group of scientists appointed by the National Advisory Eye Council (NAEC) that includes Joan. W. Miller, MD, Chair of Harvard Ophthalmology.

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Researchers Identify Metabolomics as a Potential Tool to Improve Diagnostic and Prognostic Information on AMD

July 9, 2019

A recent meta-analysis, led by Deeba Husain, MD, suggests that AMD patients present distinct plasma metabolomic profiles, which vary with disease severity. After analyzing blood samples of their 491 patients from two cohorts–one in Boston and one in Coimbra, Portugal–they found that metabolites differed significantly between AMD patients as compared to controls, and with various stages of the disease.... Read more about Researchers Identify Metabolomics as a Potential Tool to Improve Diagnostic and Prognostic Information on AMD

Mass. Eye and Ear Research Team Link Immune Cells to Uveitis

April 30, 2019

New research led by Kip Connor, PhD, finds that microglia—the primary immune cells of the central nervous system, including the retina—play a vital role in regulating neuroinflammation in autoimmune uveitis. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and featured on eyewire News, may one day lead to better treatment targets for the disease.

In the preclinical model of autoimmune uveitis, the researchers describe, for the first time, a role for microglia in directing the initiation of autoimmune uveitis by orchestrating the inflammatory response within the retina. In reaction to disease induction, microglia closely associate with the retinal vasculature and facilitate inflammatory immune cell entry past the blood brain, or ocular, barrier into the retina. When the researchers depleted microglia in this model, they observed that the disease was completely blocked.

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Study Led by Michael Gilmore, PhD, Identifies Pathway for how Enterococcus Faecalis Bacteria Causes Antibiotic-Resistant Infection

April 18, 2019

A new study led by a research team from Harvard Medical School and Mass. Eye and Ear, describes how bacteria adapted to the modern hospital environment and repeatedly cause antibiotic-resistant bloodstream infections. This study examined one of the first sustained hospital outbreaks of a multidrug-resistant bacterium, Enterococcus faecalis, which occurred from the early through the mid-1980s, causing over 60 outbreak strains.... Read more about Study Led by Michael Gilmore, PhD, Identifies Pathway for how Enterococcus Faecalis Bacteria Causes Antibiotic-Resistant Infection