Fight for Sight awards over £900,000 for eye research

Fight for Sight has awarded six new grants totalling more than £900,000 for research into eye conditions including uveitis, glaucoma, cone photoreceptor dysfunction and corneal eye disease. The grants will support researchers based at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University of Birmingham, University of Liverpool and the University of Cambridge.

Fight for Sight is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to funding world-class research into the prevention and treatment of blindness and eye disease. Each year the charity awards grants for original and ground breaking research into eye disease at some of the leading universities and hospitals in the UK. As part of its 2009 grants programme, Fight for Sight has already awarded five PhD studentships totalling £500,000 and one programme grant of £500,000.

Commenting on the awards, Michèle Acton, Chief Executive of Fight for Sight, said: “The quality of applications we received for the Fight for Sight grants programme was extremely high and we have chosen to fund six research projects that offer real hope to patients currently affected by eye disease and blindness.”

The awards have been made to the following:

Dr John Curnow, University of Birmingham: a £136,132 project grant for research into the role of regulatory white blood cells in uveitis, one of the most common causes of sight loss in the developing world. Uveitis causes inflammation in the eye and an influx of white blood cells to the inflamed eye. Some of the cells are aggressive and can damage the eye; others are regulatory and help to protect it. This research will examine the behaviour of these types of cells with the hope of increasing the effectiveness of regulatory cells and thereby reducing the damage caused by aggressive cells.

Dr Julie Daniels and Professor Mark Lewis, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology: a £177,992 project grant for research into the use of cells taken from the mouth (oral mucosal epithelial cells) for therapeutic transplantation for corneal disease. It is hoped this will lead to the development of a new cell therapy for treating diseases of the cornea - the transparent film on the front surface of the eye that is essential for vision. This research has been co-funded by Fight for Sight together with the Special Trustees of Moorfields Eye Hospital and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Sumit Dhingra, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology: a Clinical Fellowship Award of £179,980 for research into the use of inhibiting enzymes including matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors to reduce scarring caused by glaucoma surgery. The research could lead to improved treatment for patients with glaucoma and other eye diseases caused by scarring that are currently untreatable, such as scarring in premature babies.

Professor Ian Grierson, University of Liverpool: a £133,619 project grant for research into the influence of CLANs (Cross-Linked Actin Networks) on cell function, frailty and survival in primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). POAG is a common, potentially blinding, eye disease associated with high eye pressure and damage to the optic nerve. New treatments aiming to prevent the formation of CLANs or ways to remove CLANs will be examined.

Professor Alison Hardcastle, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology: a project grant of £169,806 for research into the causes of a range of different inherited disorders affecting cone photoreceptor function in patients. Cone photoreceptors are required for daylight and colour vision and there are currently no treatments available for inherited disorders. This project will define the mechanisms leading to cone photoreceptor disorders, which will have direct impact on future development of therapies and patient care. This research has received support from the Special Trustees of Moorfields Eye Hospital and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Keith Martin, University of Cambridge: a £159,936 project grant for research into new stem cell therapies for glaucoma. Currently there are no clinical therapies available that protect the neurons (the specialised nerve cells in the eye that transmit signals to the brain) from cell death induced by glaucoma. This project will test stem cells as a potential therapy to prevent blindness in patients suffering from glaucoma.

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For more information call Louise Elliott at Fight for Sight 
020 7929 7755 or visit our website: www.fightforsight.org.uk

Note for Editors:
1) Fight for Sight
Fight for Sight is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to funding world-class research into the prevention and treatment of blindness and eye disease.

Since 1965, the charity has funded millions of pounds worth of research at leading universities and hospitals throughout the UK. Our major achievements in this time include:
• saving the sight of thousands of  premature babies through understanding and controlling levels of oxygen delivery;
• restoring sight by establishing the UK Corneal Transplant Service enabling over 45,000 corneal transplants to take place;
• revolutionising the treatment for children with amblyopia (lazy eye);
• bringing hope to children with inherited eye disease by helping fund the team responsible for the world’s first gene therapy clinical trial; and
• providing £1million for the research unit at the dedicated children’s eye centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital.

Fight for Sight’s current research programme of over £5 million focuses on preventing and treating age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataract as well as causes of childhood blindness.

2) Awards
In order to ensure that the research funded is of the highest quality, Fight for Sight has established an extensive process of independent peer review. As a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) the charity’s peer review process complies with AMRC guidelines for best practice.

3) Institutions
UCL Institute of Ophthalmology
UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, a world-leading centre for eye research, is one of a number of specialised biomedical research centres within UCL (University College London). Its collaboration with Moorfields Eye Hospital, which has the largest ophthalmic patient population in the Western World, opens the way for advances at the forefront of vision research.

Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. UCL is the fourth-ranked university in the 2009 THES-QS World University Rankings, and the third -ranked UK university in the 2009 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Marie Stopes, Jonathan Dimbleby, Lord Woolf, Alexander Graham Bell, and members of the band Coldplay. UCL currently has over 12,000 undergraduate and 8,000 postgraduate students. Its annual income is over £600 million.

University of Cambridge
As the University of Cambridge celebrates its eight-hundredth anniversary in 2009, it is looking to the future.  Its mission is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.   
 
The University of Cambridge’s reputation for excellence is known worldwide and reflects the scholastic achievements of its academics and students, as well as the world-class original research carried out by its staff.  Some of the world’s most significant scientific breakthroughs have occurred at the University, including the splitting of the atom, invention of the jet engine and the discoveries of stem cells, plate tectonics, pulsars and the structure of DNA.  From Isaac Newton to Stephen Hawking, the University has nurtured some of history’s greatest minds and has produced more Nobel Prize winners than any other UK institution with over 80 laureates.

University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a member of the Russell Group of leading research-intensive institutions in the UK. It attracts collaborative and contract research commissions from a wide range of national and international organisations valued at more than £93 million annually.

University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a world leading research-led institution and member of the elite Russell group of universities. The Academic Unit of Ophthalmology has research groups based at both the Institute of Biomedical Research (IBR) and the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre at City Hospital.  The IBR contains state of the art laboratories and technologies, and houses the majority of research groups of the School of Immunity and Infection, as well as those from other schools within the College of Medical and Dental Sciences. The close links between the basic and clinical research groups has established Birmingham as an international leader of translational research in ocular immunology.