https://medicalxpress.com/ophthalmology-news/ en-us Latest medical news and research in Ophthalmology The rods and cones in your eyes are responsible for helping you see, but what is responsible for helping them? Retinal pigment epithelium cells are their caretakers, but environmental, genetic and aging factors can strain them and make them less effective. This is known as age-related macular degeneration—a leading cause of blindness. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-lab-grown-aging-eye-reveals.html Sun, 07 Jun 2026 06:20:01 EDT news700029566 Non-invasive eye scans allow doctors a zoomed-in, three-dimensional look beneath the eye's surface without causing discomfort or pain to the patient. Used routinely in clinics worldwide, the scans produce detailed views of individual layers of the eye's interior to help diagnose conditions that threaten vision. But with that level of precision comes a flood of data—hundreds of images per scan that physicians have to review manually, a time-consuming process that is vulnerable to human error. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-ai-tools-eye-doctors-retinal.html Fri, 05 Jun 2026 18:00:02 EDT news699881657 An AI-assisted model based on 71 different blood proteins could help doctors better predict retinal degeneration in diabetic patients before symptoms occur, according to a study published in PLOS Medicine by Huangdong Li from the Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases in Guangzhou, China, and colleagues. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-blood-proteins-flag-diabetic-retinal.html Tue, 02 Jun 2026 14:00:01 EDT news699546421 An international team led by University of Manchester scientists has created the most detailed picture yet of how genetic differences shape the way the human eye works. The breakthrough could help explain why millions of people develop sight-threatening conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), as well as rarer inherited eye diseases. The research is published in Nature Communications. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-genetic-human-eye-reveals-clues.html Tue, 26 May 2026 08:20:03 EDT news699001502 Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible blindness among aging people globally. Around one in seven Australians over the age of 50 have some signs of AMD. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-static-people-common-degenerative-disease.html Mon, 18 May 2026 14:20:09 EDT news698332117 Eyes, the high-resolution biological devices that help us visualize the outside world, are now being used as a portal to assess our internal health. Scientists have found that a closer evaluation of how one's retina is aging can provide crucial hints about bone health, especially in conditions such as osteoporosis, which makes bones weaker and more prone to fractures. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-written-eye-retina-biological-age.html Mon, 18 May 2026 12:00:09 EDT news698322087 Materials scientists have designed brain-stimulating contact lenses that are as effective as Prozac at treating depression in mice. The soft, transparent contact lenses have in-built electrodes that deliver mild electrical signals to the brain via the retina to stimulate specific brain regions associated with depression. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-contact-lenses-depression-mice-effectively.html Thu, 14 May 2026 11:00:06 EDT news697885681 Researchers in the WashU Medicine Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences have discovered key neuroprotective genes that could lead to the development of gene therapies to treat retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited form of retinal degeneration that causes blindness. The findings, published in Neuron, point to new therapeutic strategies to maintain retinal health and protect against degeneration. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-genome-wide-screen-yields-gene.html Mon, 11 May 2026 16:40:04 EDT news697733926 A major international study led by Flinders University has identified a genetic contributor to juvenile glaucoma. Published today in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, the study marks another important step toward treating multiple forms of glaucoma with the support of genetic testing. While glaucoma typically affects older adults, many people are unaware it can affect younger people too. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-gene-duplication-juvenile-glaucoma-patients.html Thu, 07 May 2026 13:20:02 EDT news697378081 A type of drug used to prevent migraine may be associated with a reduced risk of glaucoma, according to a study published in Neurology. The study compared 36,822 people who took calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitor drugs to prevent migraine to the same number of people who took other types of migraine prevention drugs. However, the results do not prove that CGRP inhibitor drugs directly cause the reduced risk of glaucoma; they only show an association. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-migraine-drugs-glaucoma.html Wed, 06 May 2026 19:20:03 EDT news697305841 Groundbreaking research from the University of Houston shows that a single low-dose atropine eye drop can produce daylong effects in managing myopia, or nearsightedness, which affects roughly one-third of U.S. adults. Professor of Optometry Lisa Ostrin and postdoctoral researcher Barsha Lal are reporting that even one drop in the eye of low-dose atropine (0.01%–0.1%) produces clear changes in pupil size and focusing ability that persist for at least 24 hours. Importantly, they also found that the drop shows no short-term structural effects on the eye, with only temporary changes in blood flow inside the retina. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-dose-eye-adult-myopia-hours.html Mon, 04 May 2026 15:00:08 EDT news697123801 National Eye Institute (NEI) scientists have found that the way the retina metabolizes glucose directly controls which genes get switched on and off in light-sensing photoreceptors. The findings suggest that metabolic disruptions seen in aging and disease may directly destabilize the gene expression needed to keep photoreceptors healthy, opening new avenues for treating retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss. The work is published in PLOS Genetics. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-sugar-fuels-sight-glucose-metabolism.html Mon, 04 May 2026 13:40:03 EDT news697117741 Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have successfully demonstrated that disrupting an eye structure long suspected of blocking the growth and survival of transplanted nerve cells may help restore vision in people with optic nerve damage. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-advance-efforts-vision-transplanted-neurons.html Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:04 EDT news696676981 An inherited form of blindness directly comparable to a common inherited optic nerve disease in humans has been discovered in rhesus macaques at the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis. The work, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to a better understanding of autosomal dominant optic atrophy (ADOA), and potentially to new treatments. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-macaques-reveal-human-genetic-inherited.html Tue, 28 Apr 2026 18:00:03 EDT news696610020 Pickleball-related eye injuries are on the rise in the United States, according to a study published in the journal Eye and led by Houston Methodist. The findings underscore a public health concern tied to one of America's fastest-growing sports. In addition, the research also revealed that dodgeball and kickball continue to cause significant eye-related trauma, primarily among younger individuals. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-america-fastest-sport-eye-injury.html Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:40:04 EDT news696071582 There may be some truth to the saying "the eyes are the window to the soul." Age-related changes are reflected in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. Recent research shows that a photo of the retina may also reveal potential risks for major diseases like diabetes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-ai-photo-eye-retinal-age.html Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:40:09 EDT news695992861 The more precisely we want to examine the human retina, the more clearly one of the fundamental limits of physics becomes apparent. In cellular-resolution eye imaging, the same tradeoff has applied for years—tiny structures can be seen with impressive sharpness, but only within a very thin layer of tissue. To view the entire retina, researchers usually have to refocus and acquire several separate scans in a repetitive manner. Now an international team led by Dawid Borycki and Maciej Wojtkowski from ICTER, together with Zhuolin Liu and Daniel X. Hammer from the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), has shown that this limitation can be overcome. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-exam-retina-complications.html Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:00:03 EDT news695917381 Scientists led by Botond Roska at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB) have developed MitoCatch, a system that enables targeted delivery of healthy mitochondria to specific cell types affected by disease. This innovation is a major step toward precision mitochondrial therapy. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-mitocatch-healthy-mitochondria-diseased-cells.html Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:00:07 EDT news695394961 A new Yale School of Medicine (YSM) study has uncovered surprising new details about how our eyes process what we see. When we look at something, our visual system breaks down different aspects of the scene—such as color, contrast, and motion—and processes those components separately. It's called parallel visual processing and it's what allows our brains to work out what we're seeing so quickly. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-eye.html Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:20:12 EDT news694946205 A virus that typically infects marine animals, such as shrimp and fish, has jumped to humans and is causing chronic eye disease in some people, according to a study published in the journal Nature Microbiology. In recent years, the number of people in China with a condition called persistent ocular hypertension viral anterior uveitis (POH-VAU) has been increasing with no clear explanation as to why. Symptoms include extremely elevated eye pressure and inflammation. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-virus-seafood-linked-persistent-eye.html Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:00:03 EDT news694788010 The human eye functions like an exceptionally precise, high-end camera, one with a resolution of around 576 megapixels. What makes it intriguing is that although our eyes can focus on light at only one wavelength at a time, the result isn't fragmented or blurry. What we see feels seamlessly sharp and rich in details. This raises the question of which color it chooses to focus on when the scene we are looking at has multiple colors. A recent study published in Science Advances presents a mechanism that guides the choice. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-eye-focuses-sharpness.html Tue, 07 Apr 2026 07:50:01 EDT news694752973 The human eye can see with exceptional detail, allowing people to read fine print, recognize faces across the room, and take in the features in nature. Scientists have long debated how this sharp vision works at the cellular level and whether the brain and eyes work together to make it possible. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-reveals-sharp-vision-cone-cells.html Sat, 04 Apr 2026 10:20:03 EDT news694516237