The AMDF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, publicly supported organization. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Category: AMDF Research News

News/articles featuring AMDF-funded research and grants.

Cutting Edge Research Grants Announced by The American Macular Degeneration Foundation, Co-funded with Research to Prevent Blindness

RPB AMDF Catalyst Grant AwardeesThe American Macular Degeneration Foundation (AMDF), in partnership with Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB), has announced the recipients of the RPB/AMDF Catalyst Awards for Innovative Research Approaches for Age-Related Macular Degeneration, which provide seed money for high-risk/high-gain AMD research into both dry and wet forms of the disease. Each grantee will receive $300,000, payable across three years, pending a mid-point review.

Sabine Fuhrmann, PhD, Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, will examine the potential of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells to regenerate in mature mammalian eyes. RPE cells support the healthy functioning of photoreceptor cells, while their degeneration leads to progressive, chronic AMD. By identifying and using small molecule and other novel regulators, Dr. Fuhrmann’s lab hopes to stimulate a previously discovered, intrinsic, regenerative response.

Aparna Lakkaraju, PhD, Associate Professor, University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, will also be focused on the retinal pigment epithelium, studying RPE cell damage in early AMD using advanced microscopy to observe disease progression in living cells. While Dr. Lakkaraju’s goal is learning about the genetic mechanisms that initiate RPE decline, she will also evaluate therapies that can preserve the health of the RPE, using drugs that are either already approved for human use, or in clinical/preclinical development (an approach that can shorten the time to translate these findings to the clinic).

“AMDF is continuing to grow its vision research commitments,” said Chip Goehring, President, AMDF. “By supporting these accomplished researchers in pursuing potentially game-changing treatments for macular degeneration, we hope to accelerate the arrival of new, sight-saving breakthroughs. And, by combining our resources with the grant-making experience and expertise of Research to Prevent Blindness, we are sharply increasing our ability to advance the science.”

The Catalyst Awards support previously unfunded, innovative science conducted by highly qualified scientists, equipping them with flexible dollars that allow them to pursue new discoveries in the course of their investigations.

These 2019 RPB/AMDF Catalyst Awards are part of a larger collaboration, also supported by the International Retinal Research Foundation, that is funding a total of four grants.

“We are thrilled to welcome the American Macular Degeneration Foundation into this funding collaboration,” said Brian F. Hofland, PhD, President, RPB. “The number of applications for the Catalyst Awards was up this year and AMDF’s participation allows us to double our capacity to fund important AMD research. The potential for these innovative projects is significant.”

The co-funding of these RPB/AMDF Catalyst Awards for Innovative Research Approaches in AMD is part of a broader program expansion by AMDF which began with the inaugural AMDF Prevention Award in 2017 (to Johanna Seddon, MD, ScM, University of Massachusetts Medical School, for her pioneering AMD epidemiological and genetic research); the first presentation in 2017 of the AMDF Breakthrough Award (to Neena Haider, PhD, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, for research focused on disease pathway interventions); and the AMDF Prevention Award in 2018 (to Kip Connor, PhD, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, for research focused on the interaction between the body’s innate defense systems, nutrition, environmental factors, genetic profile and modifiable lifestyle choices). In 2019, AMDF sponsored two Travel Grants for young researchers to attend the ARVO international vision research annual meeting, and is co-sponsoring a series of grants with Fight for Sight.

Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) is the leading nonprofit organization supporting eye research directed at the prevention, treatment, or eradication of all diseases that damage and destroy sight. As part of this purview, RPB also supports efforts to grow and sustain a robust and diverse vision research community. Since it was founded in 1960 by Dr. Jules Stein, RPB has awarded more than $368 million in research grants to the most talented vision scientists at the nation’s leading medical schools. As a result, RPB has been associated with nearly every major breakthrough in the understanding and treatment of vision loss in the past 50 years. Learn more at www.rpbusa.org.

AMDF In the Trenches: Stimulating Research Through New Grants and Partnerships

Through a growing portfolio of research grants and creative partnerships with other eye research funders, the American Macular Degeneration Foundation (AMDF) is finding ways to efficiently leverage its resources and accelerate the development of promising approaches to improve the lives of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients.

At AMDF, we have been hearing from researchers that the scientific community’s knowledge base about AMD has grown significantly, that technology is creating the possibilities for new assessment and drug delivery tools, and that the time is now to make a push and convert decades of discoveries into actual treatments.

As part of that push, the retooling of the AMDF Grants Program started in 2017 with the funding of Harvard’s Neena Haider, PhD, to pursue a “master switch” AMD gene therapy.  This year, the Foundation granted its first AMDF Prevention Award to fellow Harvard investigator Kip Connor, PhD, in the amount of $150,000. The award is for Dr. Connor’s proposed study, “Aging and Immunity in Age-Related Macular Degeneration,” which seeks to unravel the connections between some of the body’s immune cells (called microglia), the body’s inflammatory response, and nutrition-derived treatments.

We are also developing partnerships in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  We laid the groundwork for some of these during conversations that began at gatherings of eye researchers and eye research-funding groups last year and earlier this year. With Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB), AMDF is funding two researchers who, starting in January 2019, will each receive an AMDF/RPB Catalyst Award for Innovative Research Approaches for Age-Related Macular Degeneration (“Catalyst Award”) at a rate of $300,000 across three years.  

RPB is the preeminent, nonprofit funder of research directed at the prevention, treatment or eradication of all diseases that threaten vision. With this partnership, we are creating an incentive for the world’s leading AMD scientists.  By aligning our resources with RPB, AMDF is more than doubling our capacity to foster life-changing breakthroughs.

“RPB’s grant-making expertise and broad awareness among the nation’s top vision researchers, when aligned with AMDF’s passionate commitment to those affected by AMD, creates the potential to generate remarkable discoveries,” adds Brian Hofland, PhD, President, RPB. “We are extremely pleased to be joining forces with AMDF in supporting this kind of high risk/high gain research.”  

The proposed studies submitted for these Catalyst Awards cannot have been previously funded by any other source, ensuring that fresh ideas will come to light. Some of them may be transformative.

At the same time, we are also extending our partnership with Fight for Sight, a funder of young vision researchers.  The new grants, which will be announced at next year’s Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) annual meeting, will provide resources for postdoctoral scholars to conduct investigations and travel to the international ARVO meeting to share concepts with potential mentors.  This is a way to nurture the maturation of emerging scientists and maintain forward momentum through continuity.

“Ideas make a difference,” says Joan Miller, MD, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard, and Chief of Ophthalmology at Mass Eye and Ear and MGH. “They come from individual brains, and it is a huge enterprise to have these ideas and people come together toward solutions. Funding for this is critical, especially the early funding that comes from philanthropy and foundations to foster those ideas through academic research before they are more fully developed with federal funding and eventually tested and brought into production with the help of venture capital and pharmaceutical companies.”

This is precisely why AMDF recently provided financing for the 5th Biennial International Symposium on AMD, held at Harvard in October. The two-day event brought together more than 270 AMD researchers in a series of deep-dive, panel discussions to promote potential collaborations. Some of the world’s most established AMD scientists shared their knowledge with younger investigators and challenged them to consider additional areas of inquiry.  AMDF had the opportunity to conduct interviews with AMD thought leaders, which will soon appear on the AMDF web site.

AMD is a complex disease, and its prevalence is approaching epidemic proportions.  Already, there are 10,000 U.S. baby boomers turning 72 every single day and the risk of having AMD has reached 30 percent between the ages of 65 and 75. As a society, we have to acknowledge that this is a problem.  At AMDF, we are taking a multi-faceted approach toward solving it.

AMDF Featured in The New York Times

hayrows_amdf_0
Artwork by Paula Gottlieb

Sane Steps May Save Your Precious Central Vision

The AMDF has been featured in the New York Times.
Below is a reprint of the article.

By JANE E. BRODY

Dr. Sidney Schreiber, a cardiologist from Scarsdale, N.Y., was in his mid-70’s and still working in the lab and caring for patients when he noticed that he could not see clearly with his right eye.

A visit to his ophthalmologist produced a discouraging diagnosis. Dr. Schreiber had macular degeneration, a rapidly progressive form at that, and within three years he lost 90 percent of his vision, leaving him functionally blind.

An estimated 10 million Americans have this progressive retinal disease, though most are not as severely affected as Dr. Schreiber, and some are not yet aware that they have the painless condition. It afflicts one person in four older than 75 and is the leading cause of legal blindness in Americans over 55.

The numbers affected will continue to climb as the population ages, prompting an escalating race to develop more effective treatments and, perhaps, even preventives, including measures based on recently identified genetic factors that raise the risk of developing the disease.

A Familiar Regimen

Meanwhile, there is much that people can do now to ward off this disabling condition or slow its progress. Interestingly, the very same steps that lower the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and some cancers can also help protect the eyes.

Though peripheral vision remains intact, macular degeneration robs people of their central vision, making it hard or impossible to read, write, drive, watch television, see the time, recognize faces and see where they are going.

Still, many who are seriously afflicted manage to pursue active lives. The late Don Knotts, a co-star of “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Three’s Company,” was 57 when his disorder was diagnosed. But he continued to work almost until his death on Friday at age 81.

“I got pretty depressed for a while,” the American Macular Degeneration Foundation quotes him as saying. “And then one day I said to myself, ‘I bet a blind person would give his right arm to have the vision I have.’ “

Although most patients are over 55 when found to have what is commonly called age-related macular degeneration, some develop macular disease as children or young adults. Marla Runyan was in the fourth grade when she was struck with a juvenile form of the disease. Yet she finished college and competed twice in Olympic running events despite being legally blind.

Dr. Schreiber, the cardiologist, was an accomplished artist when macular degeneration forced him to abandon his hobby and his career. Like Mr. Knotts, he lapsed into a serious depression for nearly two years, emerging only after a visitor from Lighthouse International showed him all he could do with low-vision aids.

Encouraged by his wife, Freda, who became his eyes, he gradually resumed his favorite activities, with modifications. He visits museums (his wife reads the legends aloud), listens to recorded books (“I’ve never been so well-read”), gardens (though he sometimes pulls up flowers instead of weeds) and has resumed painting, his artistic talent apparently intact judging from a recent rendition of poppies in a vase.

He has even been able to put his medical training to good use. Now 84, he is scientific director of the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, which sponsors research and provides support and information. It also publishes a quarterly newsletter and has produced the helpful “Hope & Cope” DVD, both available for a $25 contribution. The foundation can be reached at P.O. Box 515, Northampton, Mass. 01061-0515 or at (888) 622-8527. Its Web site is www.macular.org.

The macula is a dense collection of light-sensitive cells in the middle of the retina along the back of the eye. These cells are used for the “straight-ahead” vision needed to read, sew, drive and see fine details. Most cases of macular degeneration begin and remain in one or both eyes as what is called the dry form of the disease. Yellow deposits called drusen form under the retina, increasing in number and size until they destroy macular cells and blur central vision.

The disorder can progress so slowly that deteriorating vision is not noticed until it is quite advanced. But as it worsens, more light may be needed to read and faces may become hard to recognize. Far less often, macular degeneration occurs as the wet form, leading to a rapid loss of central vision when abnormal blood vessels grow under the retina and leak blood and other fluids, raising the macula off the wall of the eye. In about 10 percent of cases, dry macular degeneration eventually develops into the wet form.

Looking for Early Signs

Dr. Schreiber said: “I might have had the dry form for 10 years, for all I know. It’s probably my fault for not seeing an eye doctor every year.”

Which raises a critical point. Early signs can be readily detected by a thorough eye exam in which the pupil is dilated, allowing the doctor to examine the retina and optic nerve for signs of trouble. People 50 and older should have such exams yearly, or twice a year with signs of disease.

A simple test can be done in any doctor’s office (or at home) to detect vision distortions that might not otherwise be noticed. It uses a graphic device called the Amsler Grid, a box of cross-hatched lines with a black dot in the center. Covering first one eye, then the other, a person stares at the black dot. If any of the straight lines appear wavy or missing, that could be a sign of macular degeneration.

Prevention and Treatment

The established risk factors offer strong clues to avoiding or delaying onset of the condition. They include smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, sedentary living, overexposure to sun and a diet deficient in green leafy vegetables and fish.

Other risk factors are being a woman, farsighted or Caucasian and having light eye or skin color, cataracts and a family history of the disorder. Two factors, oxidation and inflammation, appear to cause macular injury. Studies sponsored by the National Eye Institute found that daily consumption of a high-dose formula of antioxidants and zinc could reduce the risk that early macular degeneration would advance.

Various products sold over the counter contain this formula or one like it: 500 milligrams of vitamin C, 400 I.U. of vitamin E, 15 milligrams of beta carotene, 80 milligrams of zinc oxide and 2 milligrams of copper. Smokers should avoid products containing beta carotene, which may increase their risk of lung cancer.

In addition, most experts recommend a supplement of lutein, zeaxanthin or both, carotenoids found in dark green leafy vegetables like spinach and collards. Twinlab makes a supplement, Ocuguard Plus, that contains lutein.

Several drugs, Visudyne by QLT and Novartis and Macugen by Eyetech Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer, have also been shown to slow deterioration of eyesight in wet type macular degeneration. One Visudyne patient in six is said to have shown improved vision, a most exciting advance. Another drug awaiting approval, Lucentis by Genentech, may also help.

American Macular Degeneration Foundation
P.O. Box 515
Northampton, MA 01061-0515
413.268.7660 - Contact us
1-888-MACULAR (1-888-622-8527)
Privacy Policy

 

AMDF Facebook    AMDF YouTube

AMDF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, publicly supported organization (Charity ID #04-3274007). Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.