Palczewski

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.
vinberg

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.
David Salom

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!
Kefalov, Vladimir01

Mar 28, 2024 | UCI School of Medicine

UCI researchers find potential new gene-independent therapy for retinal degeneration

A research team led by the UC Irvine School of Medicine has identified a potential new gene-independent therapeutic strategy for treating the millions of people worldwide who suffer from retinal degeneration, a group of diseases that can lead to vision loss.
Kuppermann

Jan 17, 2024 | UCI School of Medicine

School of Medicine receives prestigious grant from Research to Prevent Blindness

The University of California, Irvine School of Medicine has received a prestigious Unrestricted Grant from the nonprofit organization Research to Prevent Blindness. The five-year, $575,000 grant will support eye research conducted by the Department of Ophthalmology.
Crystal structure of two nanobodies binding to a rhodopsin dimer.

Aug 29, 2023 | UCI School of Medicine

UC Irvine researchers discover a nanobody which may lead to treatment for Retinitis Pigmentosa

A special antibody derived from llamas — called a nanobody — can stop the misfolding and the activation of Rhodopsin, a molecule whose mutations can lead to blindness.

Kris Palczewski

May 03, 2022

Krzysztof Palczewski, PhD elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Dr. Palczewski has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for outstanding contributions to the biology and chemistry of vertebrate vision and therapy of retinal diseases.