Surprisingly, the second round of gene therapy further strengthened the brain's response to the initially
treated eye, as well as the
newly treated one, perhaps «because the two
eyes act in concert, and some aspects of vision rely on binocularity,» she says.
Among the
newly funded investigations are: the development of animal models of diabetic
eye disease to learn how fenofibrate, a drug clinically - approved to
treat cholesterol, protects the
eye from diabetes - related damage; the development of a specialized camera to capture how the retina's rods and cones (responsible for turning light energy into shapes and colors) work in health and how they fail in retinal diseases; and the exploration of mechanisms by which intestinal tract bacteria impact the health of the
eye.