Sternberg lands top award from Macula Society During the recent Macula Society annual meeting, Paul Sternberg Jr., MD, G. W. Hale Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and director of the Vanderbilt Eye Institute, received the organization’s highest honor, the Gass Medal for outstanding contributions in the study of macular diseases. The award was created to honor the legacy of J. Donald M. Gass, MD, one of the world’s most respected experts on the diseases of the retina, macula and uvea. “It is deeply meaningful to receive this honor,” said Sternberg. “Don Gass was a hero and an inspiration — and he did it all with an almost reality-defying sense of humility. It was a privilege to know and work with Dr. Gass, and an extraordinary tribute to receive the Gass Medal.” Gass, who died in 2005, was a native of Nashville and a graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He joined Vanderbilt at the end of his career on a part-time basis. Sternberg said during that time, he saw patients, wrote papers and updated what is known as the premier medical textbook on macular diseases — the “Stereoscopic Atlas of Macular Diseases: Diagnosis and Treatment,” or the Gass […]

Eye Institute receives $10 million gift for vision research efforts The Vanderbilt Eye Institute (VEI) has received a $10 million gift — the Institute’s largest to date — that will fund regenerative visual neuroscience research to develop transformative therapies for eye diseases. While the donor family wants to remain anonymous, the impact of the gift will be widely recognizable. “Our family motto is helping people who help others,” said a member of the donor family. “There is a lot of activity around regenerative medicine and the amount of excitement surrounding collaborative efforts to understand and ultimately cure blinding eye diseases. The number of people who can be helped by the work of the researchers at VEI is countless. “What started as a single relationship with one physician years ago developed into a connection with a growing team of experts and researchers all dedicated to eliminating blindness. What really attracted me is the fact that VEI puts people first — it was obvious that their faculty is considered their biggest asset. We recognized the drive and focus on innovative work they are trained to do and didn’t want them spending a lot of time looking for funds to support pioneering efforts.” […]

Findings on eye-signal blending re-examine Nobel-winning research Look at an object, cover one eye at a time, and the object appears to jump back and forth. Stare at it with both eyes working, and we take for granted a complicated process of the brain combining the signals into one, giving us a clear view and proper depth perception. That happens the moment those dual signals enter the visual cortex in the brain, a team of Vanderbilt University researchers has discovered. Their finding, made possible by modern technology, is counter to one that garnered the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Vanderbilt’s Alexander Maier, assistant professor of psychology, and Ph.D. student Kacie Dougherty used computerized eye-tracking cameras plus electrodes that can record activity of single neurons in a particular area. Knowing precisely where the signals meet and the brain processes them is vital to treating amblyopia, or reduced vision in one eye because the brain and eye aren’t working together properly. So far, the standard treatment is placing a patch over the working eye in an effort to jumpstart the “lazy” one. If pediatric eye specialists miss the short window when the problem can be fixed, it’s typically permanent. “Our […]

In Memory – Dr. Robert Fox Robert Fox, an emeritus Vanderbilt professor who was renowned internationally for his landmark studies of human and animal vision, died Dec. 12. He was 86 years old. Fox, professor of psychology, emeritus, died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after a short illness. A memorial service is being planned for early spring. A Cincinnati native, Fox studied at the University of Cincinnati, earning his bachelor of arts in 1957 and his doctorate in 1963. He then joined the Department of Psychology, where he established a research program on visual perception. He also held appointments in biomedical engineering and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. Fox enjoyed decades of continuous grant funding and his papers were published in the very best journals in his field, including Nature, Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology and Vision Research. He and three colleagues were the first to show evidence that depth perception emerges at 3 ½ to 6 months of age in humans. Fox’s work combining vision and neuroscience stimulated interest in the phenomenon of binocular vision and efforts to better understand and treat visual disorders. “Fox’s reputation attracted other vision scientists to Vanderbilt’s faculty, leading to formation of a research team […]

NEI grants help bolster glaucoma research efforts Two Vanderbilt Eye Institute (VEI) researchers were recently awarded National Eye Institute (NEI) Audacious Goals Initiative (AGI) for Regenerative Medicine grants for $6.8 million over five years to develop new treatments for optic neuropathies and glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness. The NEI program, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), seeks to support the development of new disease models to allow researchers to test novel regenerative therapies, including gene-and cell-based therapies, and help transition them into the clinic. Tonia Rex, PhD Tonia Rex, PhD, associate professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, is the principal investigator for the project, “Retinal Ganglion Cell Replacement in Clinically Relevant Models of Optic Neuropathy.” Rex’s team is developing optic cup organoids, which are lab-grown tissues with the potential to regrow retinal ganglion cells. “The purpose of my project is to develop two models of optic neuropathy — glaucoma and trauma — in a human relevant species and to optimize delivery, integration and survival of transplanted retinal ganglion cells,” explained Rex. The team hopes the model will yield a better understanding of how transplant-type therapies may help preserve and restore vision loss due to optic nerve damage. […]

Five research teams will develop new models for eye disease research NEI Audacious Goals Initiative funds projects to accelerate the development of regenerative treatments for blindness The National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded grants to five multi-disciplinary teams to develop new disease models for a range of eye conditions. The program, which will award $30 million over 5 years, is part of the NEI Audacious Goals Initiative (AGI) for Regenerative Medicine. The AGI seeks to catalyze new treatments for blinding conditions like glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, and other degenerative eye diseases. New models will enable researchers to test novel regenerative therapies, including gene- and cell-based therapies, and help transition them to the clinic. “Models that recapitulate human disease are essential to predicting the success of new therapies in humans. These audacious projects will be pivotal in our efforts to translate the latest science advances into new treatments for vision loss and blindness,” said NEI Director Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D. Scientists use disease models throughout the process of developing new treatments. From cell or animal models of eye diseases, researchers can learn the root cause of disease, study the changes that […]

Calkins lands innovation award from Research to Prevent Blindness by Jessica Pasley Jun. 28, 2018, 9:16 AM David Calkins, PhD, vice chair and director of Research at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute, has been granted one of the preeminent awards in vision research — the Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Stein Innovation Award. The award, $300,000 over the next two years, provides flexible funding to scientists engaged in research with the goal of understanding the visual system and the diseases that compromise its function. Calkins, the Denis O’Day Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and director of the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, will use the grant to fund work focused on energy depletion in the optic nerve in glaucoma and how interactions between support cells called astrocyte glia and axonal fibers in the nerve may compensate for this depletion to prolong visual signaling in the brain. “This award is extremely competitive,” said Calkins. “It is a rare award, one that honors the innovative nature of the winner’s research into blinding eye disease.” Calkins said the project in part reflects the neuroscience dissertation of his senior graduate student, PhD candidate Melissa Cooper. Calkins is one of 11 researchers who have received the […]

Study explores accuracy of residency applications The misrepresentation of scholarly work among residency applicants has been documented for decades, said Louise Mawn, MD, professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Louise Mawn, MD Every year residency programs grapple with unverifiable publications and other citings included on applications. Despite the unethical practice, there has been no resolution, until the release of the study “Rate of Unverifiable Publications Among Ophthalmology Residency Applicants Invited to Interview” in JAMA Ophthalmology. “The really nice part of this investigation and what makes our publication unique is that we identified a challenge and potential ways of addressing the issue in the future,” said Mawn, principal investigator of the study. “This was a significant finding that we knew was important to communicate to a wider body. “Although others have identified unverifiable publications as a problem, no one has offered a solution. We are the first to land on a solution, and a really implementable one.” Armed with knowledge that many prospective residents submit applications with unverifiable publications, Mawn and colleagues set out to determine the rate of this occurrence among the pool of applicants at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute. Heather Tamez, MD, current chief […]

Glaucoma — the leading cause of vision loss worldwide — includes a heterogeneous group of disorders. Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and exfoliation glaucoma (XFG) are linked to decreased outflow of aqueous humor, which affects intraocular pressure. A multi-institutional team of investigators including Rachel Kuchtey, MD, PhD, and John Kuchtey, PhD, at Vanderbilt, explored molecular changes in aqueous humor content in glaucoma. The investigators profiled the expression of microRNAs (miRNAs), which regulate gene expression, in aqueous humor samples from patients with POAG, XFG and cataracts (non-glaucoma controls). They found three miRNAs and five miRNAs with significantly different expression in POAG and XFG, respectively, compared to controls. One miRNA differed between POAG and XFG. Pathway analysis revealed that the differentially expressed miRNAs were involved in potential glaucoma pathways, including focal adhesion, tight junctions and TGF-beta signaling. The findings, reported in the April 1 issue of Human Molecular Genetics, highlight miRNAs that are differentially expressed in glaucoma and that could be candidate biomarkers or targets for therapy. This research was supported by The Glaucoma Foundation, the Glaucoma Research Foundation, the BrightFocus Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (grants EY023242, EY027746, EY020894, EY023287).     Original Post

A team of researchers, led by David Calkins, PhD, vice chair and director of Research at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute, has made a breakthrough discovery in the field of glaucoma showing new hopes for treatments to preserve vision. In addition, Calkins is encouraged that the findings released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) will have treatment ramifications to combat age-related neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. The paper, “Axogenic Mechanism Enhances Retinal Ganglion Cell Excitability During Early Progression in Glaucoma,” unmasked a revolutionary conclusion — in the past it was believed that as retinal activity is lost, the connection between the retina and the brain should be gone, but the opposite is true. Calkins deemed the information one of the most significant discoveries since his team showed in 2010 that the first sign of injury in glaucoma occurs in the brain, and was similar to other age-related, central nervous system diseases. “What we have demonstrated in our most recent study is that the brain fights back,” said Calkins, Denis O’Day Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and director of the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center. “And we identified the mechanism for what causes this compensatory response. […]

Announcing Kenneth C. Catania as the Keynote Speaker at VSS 2018 VSS is pleased to welcome Kenneth C. Catania as the VSS 2018 Keynote Speaker. Dr. Catania is the Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University. He is considered an expert in exotic animal behaviors, focusing on how specialized species reveal general principles about the organization of sensory systems. Dr. Catania was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2006 and a Guggenheim Fellow in 2014. In 2013, he received the Pradel Research Award in Neurosciences from the National Academy of Sciences. In his talk entitled “More than meets the eye: the extraordinary brains and behaviors of specialized predators,” Dr. Catania will describe the neurobiology and behavior of unusual species, including star-nosed moles, tentacled snakes, and electric eels. He will discuss predator-prey interactions, in particular how these interactions have resulted in the evolution of high-acuity senses and dramatic attack and escape behaviors. Dr. Catania’s talk will be held on Saturday, May 19th at 7:15 pm in Talk Room 1-2. To learn more about Kenneth C. Catania and his groundbreaking work, please visit his home page.

Tonia Rex, Ph.D., is working to develop new tests to detect audio and visual dysfunction in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. (photo by Anne Rayner) Vanderbilt researcher Tonia Rex, Ph.D., is accustomed to performing studies in her lab with a goal of translating the findings into better diagnoses and treatment tools for the visually impaired. Her most recent grant will provide a new experience in her research career — her first-ever clinical study. “Quantitative Evaluation of Visual and Auditory Dysfunction and Multi-Sensory Integration in Complex TBI Patients” is a three-year, $2 million Department of Defense-funded grant to develop objective tests to detect sensory dysfunction in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. In turn, the outcome measures will be used to create diagnostic tools for future clinical trials to test potential therapies. Rex’s research focuses on discoveries that can lead to treatments for vision loss due to trauma. Her most recent project involves a multi-disciplinary team that will incorporate both civilian and military participants. “With the increased incidence of TBI in the military and with more recognition of these kinds of injuries in sports, more people are talking about TBI,” said Rex, associate professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Vanderbilt University […]

The Vanderbilt Eye Institute (VEI) recently hosted the Southeastern Vision Conference to celebrate and share excellence in vision science. The two-day seminar held at the Vanderbilt University Marriott brought together three vision research groups from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Emory University to foster collaborations among the groups. The recent Southeastern Vision Conference brought together research groups from across the region to share excellence in vision science and discuss collaboration. (photo by Steve Green) “We all share a common focus on mechanisms of vision and new treatments for diseases that affect vision,” said David Calkins, Ph.D., Denis M. O’Day Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Vanderbilt. “Collectively, research at these three institutions covers all aspects of vision and diseases of the visual system, forming a hub for excellence in the Southeast. “Yet, despite our proximity and commonalities, we never gathered everyone to discuss new and innovative research for the purpose of accelerating the science through collaboration, communication and sharing of scientific resources,” said Calkins, vice chair and director for Research at VEI and director of the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center. Collaborators from Morehouse School of Medicine, Alabama Eye Bank, Hamilton Eye Institute […]

     Our very own, Kacie Dougherty has been accepted into the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Course “Vision – A Platform for Linking Circuits, Behavior, and Perception”.  Kacie is a Graduate Student here at Vanderbilt University with several publications and honor in her name.  As a member of the Maier Lab, she has been working to increase our scientific understanding of the neural mechanisms that give rise to visual perception in order to prevent and treat visual deficits, disorders and disease. The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was founded in 1890 and is a preeminent international research institution, achieving breakthroughs in molecular biology and genetics and enhancing scientific knowledge worldwide.  Acceptance into this course is a milestone for Kacie and speaks highly of her work in visual research. We would like to take a moment to congratulate Kacie on her acceptance into the course and wish her the best this summer!

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine moves to eighth in NIH research funding and Vanderbilt Eye Institute ranks 9th. by John Howser | Thursday, Apr. 13, 2017, 11:37 AM Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) now ranks No. 8 in the nation among U.S. medical schools in total grant support provided through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The new ranking raises VUSM’s standing two spots from the No. 10 position it held last year. Receiving $340,049,796 in total NIH grant support during calendar year 2016, VUSM finished the year with an additional $48,854,269 in funding over its 2015 total. Support from the NIH for research continues to be increasingly competitive among the nation’s leading academic medical centers and remains a key indicator of an institution’s overall strength in biomedical research. NIH funding provides crucial support for Vanderbilt’s researchers to advance the understanding of the underlying causes of and to develop new treatments for a diverse array of adult and childhood diseases and disorders that cost the U.S. economy more than $3 trillion each year. Last year was historic in terms of VUSM’s receipt of competitively funded research support, including the largest single grant in Vanderbilt history — a $71.6 million, […]

In MemoryVivien Alice Casagrande 1942 – 2017

Grant strengthens Brantley’s vision research efforts Milam Brantley Jr., M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, recently received a $500,000 grant from the Edward N. and Della L. Thome Memorial Foundation Awards Program in Macular Degeneration Research to further his work on age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Milam Brantley Jr., M.D., Ph.D. The award will be dispersed over a two-year period to support his project “Understanding the Mechanism of Bile Acids’ Influence on AMD Pathophysiology.” Brantley’s lab, in conjunction with a team at Emory University, has used metabolomics, a technique that can simultaneously measure thousands of molecules in a person’s blood, to study AMD and other leading causes of blindness. His initial metabolomic investigation of patients from the Vanderbilt Eye Institute (VEI) revealed that patients with AMD had altered blood levels of bile acids compared to those without AMD. “Having identified these alterations of bile acid levels in patients with AMD, we now want to understand how and why these molecules differ in the disease,” said Brantley. “We want to identify the molecular pathway differences to help us better understand the underlying pathophysiology of the disease.” Brantley will collaborate with the Mass Spectrometry Core […]

Friday November 18th 1220 MRB III Friday November 18th 1:30 pm    Arrivals – coffee and conversations in the lobby 2:00 pm    Welcome: Ian Macara, Ph.D.,   Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Louise McGavock Chair, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. 2:05 pm    “Molecular Mechanisms of Visual Cortical Plasticity” Xiangmin Xu, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine. 2:35 pm    perspective: Randolph Blake, Ph.D., Centennial Professor of Psychology, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Vice Chair of Psychology, Vanderbilt University. 2:40 pm    “The Evolution of the Visual Pulvinar”, Jon Kaas, Ph.D., Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology 
Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University. 3:10 pm    perspective: Mark Wallace, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School, Louise McGavock Chair, Professor of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Psychology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. 3:15 pm    presentation: Rene Marois, Ph.D.  Professor and Chair of Psychology, Associate Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University. 3:25 pm    coffee and stretch 3:40 pm    perspective: Anita Disney, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. 3:45 […]

Six Teams Seek to Identify Biological Factors That Influence Neural Regeneration The National Institutes of Health will fund six projects to identify biological factors that affect neural regeneration in the retina. The projects are part of the National Eye Institute (NEI) Audacious Goals Initiative (AGI), a targeted effort to restore vision by regenerating neurons and their connections in the eye and visual system. These projects will receive a total of $12.4 million over three years, pending availability of funds. “Understanding factors that mediate the regeneration of neurons and the growth of axons is crucial for the development of breakthrough therapies for blinding diseases. What we learn through these projects will have a health impact beyond vision,” said Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., director of NEI, part of NIH. Most irreversible blindness results from the loss of neurons in the retina, which is the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye. Many common eye diseases, including age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, put these cells at risk. Once these neurons are gone, humans have little if any capacity to replace them. One of the six teams is of Dr. Levine at Vanderbilt Vision Research Center. Novel activators of regeneration […]

Vision Research Seminar Series 4:10 PM, Wednesday, September 28th, 2016 1220 Medical Research Building III Dennis Levi, Ph.D. Professor of Optometry & Vision Science University of California, Berkeley Title: Recovering Stereovision Abstract: Stereopsis is the impression of three-dimensionality—of objects “popping out in depth”—that most humans get when they view real-world objects with both eyes, based on binocular disparity—the differences between the two retinal images of the same world. However, a substantial proportion of the population is stereoblind or stereo deficient due to strabismus and/or amblyopia. This impairment may have a substantial impact on visuomotor tasks, difficulties in playing sports in children and locomoting safely in older adults. Impaired stereopsis may also limit career options. This talk will review several promising new approaches to recovering stereopsis through perceptual learning and videogame play.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences today announced that Centennial Professor of Psychology Gordon D. Logan has been elected as one of its new members, along with 212 other individuals including some of the world’s most accomplished scholars, scientists, writers and artists, as well as civic, business and philanthropic leaders. Logan has made profound theoretical and empirical contributions to the field of psychology through his studies of attention and automaticity, the development of skill acquisition, and the nature of executive control. He pioneered the “stop-signal paradigm” that forces subjects to inhibit an ongoing action in response to a stop signal, which has allowed psychologists to address the issue of how people inhibit their behaviors and has been applied successfully to the study of performance in wide varieties of clinical populations who show deficits in inhibitory control. His “instance theory of automatization” also has been extremely influential because it accounts for how people “automate” repetitive cognitive tasks. The theory holds that automatic processing develops because the observer stores separate representations or “instances” of each exposure to a task, and that consistent practice increases the speed with which a person can retrieve these instances. In recent work, Logan has shown that […]

The National Academy of Sciences has announced that Geoffrey Woodman, associate professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, will receive a 2016 Troland Research Award. The academy gives two of these $75,000 research awards annually to     recognize unusual achievement by young investigators and to further empirical research within the broad spectrum of experimental psychology. Woodman has been working to unite techniques used to study the brain activity in humans with those used in animals, combining intracranial recordings in monkeys with scalp recordings. Such work is helping to bridge the gap between research in humans and primates. Woodman has also made discoveries at the forefront of research on learning and memory. Recently he discovered that a mild electrical stimulation applied to the medial frontal cortex resulted in improved learning and memory for some five hours. These findings also have implications for people with brain disorders. Woodman and his team, for instance, have performed similar research on people with schizophrenia and found that the technique could restore error monitoring—the short but important pause healthy people make after making a mistake. The Troland Research Award was established by a trust created in 1931 by the bequest of Harvard psychologist Leonard T. Troland. Woodman […]

Save the Date Monday, November 9, 2015 12-9 pm Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University This event will celebrate our rich tradition of excellence and rapid growth in vision science across Vanderbilt schools, institutes, and campuses. The schedule will include platform updates from our faculty, posters from our many talented trainees, and lunch, cocktails and dinner.  We are pleased to announce that our platform speaker will be Professor David Williams, PhD, Dean for Science and Director of the Center for Visual Sciences at the University of Rochester. Professor Williams is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the most recent winner of the $500,000 Beckman-Argyros Award in Vision Research. Sponsored by the Vanderbilt Eye Institute For further information and registration contact:  Vanessa Alderson, Project Assistant Email:  vanessa.alderson@vanderbilt.edu