Fight for Sight names recipients of three £15,000 research awards

Professor David Bates from the University of Bristol has been awarded the Dr Hans and Mrs Gertrude Hirsch Award. The £15,000 grant, awarded by Fight for Sight, will support Professor Bates’ research into ways of preventing the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the eye. This research could lead to new treatments for age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, two common causes of sight loss in the UK.

Professor David Bates said: “I am honoured to receive this award and believe it will help to develop a new approach to blocking blood vessel growth, paving the way for better treatments for progressive sight loss.”

Fight for Sight has also made awards of £15,000, under the Fight for Sight Small Grant Awards Scheme, to Dr Peter Charbel Issa based at the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, and to Dr Steven Dakin at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

Dr Charbel Issa is working on developing retinal gene-therapy for people suffering from age-related macular degeneration and other retinal disease.  He said of his award:
“I am delighted to receive funding for my research which could make a real difference to patients affected by retinal diseases.”

Dr Dakin will use the funding from Fight for Sight to develop a test to detect the early effects of glaucoma, which could lead to earlier treatment for the one in 50 people over the age of 40 who are affected by the condition. “We think that the earliest stages of glaucoma influence the way patients move their eyes when doing everyday tasks like watching television. We are hoping that by making a link between glaucoma and eye movements we will be able to detect glaucoma earlier, before significant loss of vision occurs."

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For more information
call Louise Elliott at Fight for Sight on 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) The Dr Hans and Mrs Gertrude Hirsch Award
This award scheme has been established through funding from the estate of the late Dr Hans and Mrs Gertrude Hirsch who had a particular interest in helping people with visual impairment. The award of up to £15,000 is made annually.

3) The Fight for Sight Small Grant Awards
Fight for Sight Small Grant Awards of up to £15,000, tenable for up to 12 months, are awarded annually. The awards are open to both clinical and non-clinical scientists working in the field of ophthalmology. They can be used to contribute to the cost of employment, equipment and/or consumables.