This Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) provides $462,072 to Tufts Medical Center to study the metabolic basis of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and potential treatments using anaplerotic substrates. The research aims to investigate fatty acid metabolic exchanges between the liver and retina, and to use anaplerotic substrates along with genetic manipulations to prevent oxygen-induced retinopathy. The award period runs from April 1, 2025 to March...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) provides $939,708 to the Augusta University Research Institute, Inc. (doing business as Georgia Health Sciences) to investigate the role of histone deacetylases HDAC6 and SIRT1 in the development of diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness. The research aims to study how an imbalance between HDAC6 and SIRT1 contributes to retinal vascular senescence and diabetic microangiopathy, as well...
This federal Project Grant award of $853,894 was provided by the National Eye Institute (NEI) under the Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867) to examine the mechanisms of placental-mediated protection against retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). The research aims to: Determine if the LHX5 transcription factor mediates a vasoprotective Wnt response to oxygen stress through direct regulation of SFRP1 in retinal pigment epithelial cell models. Investigate if LHX5 promoter methylation localizes to...
This Project Grant award of $580,331 from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) aims to develop a deep learning-based diagnostic tool for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a leading cause of childhood blindness. The key products and services to be delivered under this award include: Optimizing and testing an animal-to-human (A2H) model to augment the training dataset for the deep learning-based ROP diagnostic model, using existing and newly acquired longitudinal animal ROP...
This Project Grant awarded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) under the Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867) funds the development and evaluation of novel surrogate augmented deep predictive learning algorithms to predict referral-warranted retinopathy of prematurity (RW-ROP). The primary goals are to: Develop algorithms that leverage early retinal images and demographic factors to accurately predict RW-ROP, enabling earlier identification of high-risk infants for close monitoring and...
The U.S. National Eye Institute (NEI) awarded a $184,117 Project Grant (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) to Oakland University to determine the role of G-coupled protein receptors GPR31 and GPR39 in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. The project aims to investigate the affinities and substrate specificities of GPR31 and GPR39 for 12- and 15-HETE metabolites in retinal endothelial cells and Müller cells under normal and hyperglycemic conditions. It will also examine the effects of GPR31 or...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (NEI), under the Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867), is funding the development of OPGX-RHO, a single-vector gene therapy for the treatment of autosomal-dominant retinitis pigmentosa (ADRP). The $882,971 award supports two key objectives: 1) completing chemistry, manufacturing, and controls for a clinical-grade batch of OPGX-RHO, including stability studies and device compatibility testing, and 2) conducting efficacy and...
This $185,000 Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (NEI) under CFDA 93.867 (Vision Research) supports research to discover novel disease-modifying therapies for the prevention and treatment of glaucoma. The primary awardee, the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, will employ computational pharmacology approaches to identify small molecule inhibitors that can interfere with the GREM1-BMP protein-protein interaction, a key pathogenic mechanism contributing...
This Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (NEI), under the federal Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867), aims to develop a mutation-independent therapy for retinal degenerations caused by mutations in the PRPH2 gene. The $431,750 award will fund research to determine the efficacy of reducing rhodopsin levels, a key component of photoreceptors, as a potential treatment approach across multiple mouse models expressing different PRPH2 mutations. The research will evaluate...
This Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (NEI) under the Vision Research federal grant program (CFDA 93.867) will fund the development of a new wide-field visible-light optical coherence tomography (WF-VIS-OCT) device to evaluate the oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) model in rats. The $623,090 award, effective September 1, 2024, will support the Oregon Health & Science University in three main efforts: 1) developing the WF-VIS-OCT system with 5-mm transverse resolution over a...
This federal Project Grant award of $770,000.00 was provided by the National Eye Institute (NEI) under the Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867) to the Augusta University Research Institute, Inc. (dba Georgia Health Sciences) in Augusta, Georgia. The goal of this award is to identify novel mechanisms and develop a new and effective therapy for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), the leading cause of preventable blindness in children. The key objectives are to: 1) investigate the therapeutic efficacy of butyrate therapy in mouse models of ROP, 2) determine the relevance of GPR109A-dependent molecular signaling to microglia activation, retinal inflammation, and neovascularization in ROP, and 3) demonstrate the importance of butyrate-mediated HDAC1 signaling in endothelial cells to retinal neovascularization and vaso-obliteration in ROP. This research aims to better understand the signaling mechanisms and retinal cell types responsible for butyrate's effects in the premature retina and its potential to counter early and late pathogenic events in ROP, thereby addressing the critical need for new and improved therapies.