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Feb 17, 2026 | UC Irvine School of Medicine
Inside Falling Leaves: New Facility Brings 13 Research Programs to Cure the ‘Incurable’
Palczewski and his team are using a combination of gene therapy and noninvasive imaging to develop cures for inherited blindness. So far, they’ve discovered how to reverse and prevent cell degeneration in the eyes and are now working to develop a method to guide this therapy to specific cells in need of correction.
Jan 23, 2026 | UC Irvine School of Medicine
Pioneering Research to Prevent and Reverse Blindness
Research led by Frans Vinberg, PhD and colleagues at UC Irvine demonstrates that human retinal cells can regain light responses after prolonged loss of blood flow, challenging long-standing assumptions about irreversible vision loss. This work establishes critical preclinical methods and infrastructure that support new therapeutic strategies to prevent and potentially reverse blindness.
May 08, 2024 | UCI School of Medicine
Congratulations to our 2024 Awardees
David Salom, PhD is announced to be the winner of the 2024 UCI School of Medicine Outstanding Career Scientist Research Award! Emily Tom, MD, PhD student received the 2024 Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award Honorable Mention! Congratulations, CTVR members, we are very proud!
Matt Miller Director mrmille2@uci.edu
Michelle Heath Manager mstrombe@hs.uci.edu
Shani Murray Senior Science Writer shanim@hs.uci.edu
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The first Kenney Research Grant was awarded to Gulab Zode, PhD, for his work addressing the unsolved problem of vision loss in glaucoma patients that continues even when eye pressure is well controlled.
Research led by Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk, PhD, shows that Greenland sharks—among the longest-lived vertebrates—retain structurally intact and functional retinas well beyond 100 years of age. Their remarkable visual preservation appears tied to ongoing activation of DNA-repair and protective molecular pathways, providing new insight into mechanisms that may counteract age-related retinal degeneration.
Dr. Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk has received the Dr. H. James & Carole Free Catalyst Award for Innovative Research Approaches for Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Her project explores lipid metabolism and omega-3 fatty acids as early intervention strategies to preserve retinal health during aging.
Apr 15, 2025 | The Scientist
A Vision of the Future: Restoring Eyesight via Transplantation
Magdalene Seiler, an ophthalmology researcher and neurobiologist at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), has spent over 30 years developing transplantation strategies to restore vision in patients affected by retinal degenerative diseases.
Jan 28, 2025 | GEG Tech
Retinal gene therapy: Visual cycle restored in blind mice
University of California, Irvine and GEG Tech announce results paving the way for high-precision gene therapy.