GRF to Present Groundbreaking Research for Glaucoma at Janua...( SAN FRANCISCO Dec. 9 /- The Glaucoma ...),Health
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- The Glaucoma Research Foundation will be presenting its annual Research Overview by the four principal investigators of the GRF-funded Catalyst for a Cure (CFC) research consortium that opens GRF's 31st Anniversary Benefit and Celebration at 5 pm, Wednesday, January 28, 2009, in San Francisco's legendary Palace Hotel.
"As the conventional understanding of glaucoma evolves from being described as an eye disease to a neurodegenerative disease," says Thomas M. Brunner, GRF President and CEO, "there is an emerging sense that glaucoma could actually be the first neurodegenerative disease we can cure. And that extraordinary possibility will be an overriding theme of all the presentations."
The research conducted by the CFC research consortium found that oxidative stress is a factor in the rate of loss of cellular function from glaucoma - effectively preventing vision loss in a relevant model of glaucoma. In another important pair of studies, the CFC discovered that the cell death that causes vision loss in glaucoma has two distinct phases, and that axonal degeneration precedes neuronal loss. These facts point to a therapeutic window for interventions. Importantly, the studies have determined that vision loss from glaucoma can be predicted by observing changes specific to genes and proteins.
"Of particular scientific interest this year are the similarities between glaucoma and other chronic neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and Lou Gehrig's disease. The hope is that by studying the mechanisms of neurodegeneration, new targets for novel therapeutic interventions before the critical point of irreversible damage occurs," says Dr. David Calkins, a GRF-funded researcher.
About the Glaucoma Research Foundation
Glaucoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness. Founded in 1978 in
San Francisco, the Glauc
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