DOHENY EYE INSTITUTE

THE MISSION OF THE DOHENY EYE INSTITUTE (DEI), TO FURTHER THE CONSERVATION, IMPROVEMENT AND RESTORATION OF HUMAN EYESIGHT, IS GUIDED BY THE FOLLOWING OBJECTIVES: 1. TO INCREASE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HUMAN EYE, ITS CONDITIONS AND DISEASES, THROUGH RESEARCH; 2. TO TRANSMIT THIS KNOWLEDGE THROUGH EDUCATION, TRAINING, AND COMMUNITY SERVICE; AND 3. TO FACILITATE THE APPLICATION OF ITS RESEARCH TO IMPROVE PATIENT CARE AND FOSTER FURTHER RESEARCH. RESEARCH ACTIVITIES FOR THE PERIOD AND SELECTED FOR LONG-TERM FOCUS INCLUDE: RETINAL AND MACULAR DEGENERATION RESEARCH THROUGH THE STUDY OF RETINAL PIGMENT EPITHELIUM AND THE USE OF ADVANCED RETINAL IMAGING IN PATIENTS WITH AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION (AMD) AND IMAGE ANALYSIS USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLEGENCE; OPTIC NERVE RESEARCH AND INVESTIGATIONS OF DISEASES INVOLVING RETINAL GANGLION CELLS; INVESTIGATIONS OF RETINAL VASCULAR STIFFNESS AND ALTERED IMMUNE CELL REGULATION AS POTENTIAL CAUSATIVE FACTORS IN DIABETIC RETINOPATHY; RESEARCH FOCUSED ON DEFINING THE MOLECULAR DETAILS LINKING MITOCHONDRIAL DYSFUNCTION AND ALTERED SIGNALING BETWEEN RETINAL NEURONS. On December 18, 2013, the Doheny Eye Institute executed an agreement with the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) for a 99 year affiliation. The purpose of this affiliation is to carry out the Institute's mission -- to further the conservation, improvement, and restoration of human eyesight -- through research, education, and clinical care (clinical care is provided directly by UCLA). Both the Institute and UCLA-Stein Eye Institute are dedicated to providing the public with the highest quality of ophthalmic care and the most innovative and strategic research for the improvement of human eyesight. IN NOV. 2021 DOHENY EYE INSTITUTE (DEI) MOVED TO ITS NEW LOCATION - 150 ORANGE GROVE BLVD IN PASADENA, CA. NEW AREAS OF RESEARCH DEI IS STUDYING THE MECHANISMS RESPONSIBLE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION (AMD), THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF BLINDNESS AMONG INDIVIDUALS OVER 60 YEARS OLD IN THE USA. THE RISK OF DEVELOPING AMD IS SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED WHEN SPECIFIC GENES ARE MUTATED. ONE NEW STUDY IS FOCUSED ON STUDYING THE RETINAL CELLS IN THE POPULATION OF PATIENTS HARBORING A SPECIFIC MUTATION IN A GENE INVOLVED IN THE IMMUNE SYSTEM. A SECOND STUDY IS FOCUSED ON A DIFFERENT GENE OF UNKNOWN FUNCTION BUT WITH HIGH IMPACT ON AMD. THE RESEARCHERS ARE STUDYING RETINAL CELLS GENERATED FROM AMD PATIENTS THAT HAVE THESE GENETIC DEFECTS. INFORMATION FROM THESE TWO STUDIES IS CRITICAL FOR DEVELOPMENT OF NEW THERAPIES FOR AMD THAT TARGET WHAT IS CAUSING THE DISEASE. IN OTHER STUDIES, DEI SCIENTISTS HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN DEVELOPING NEW AND FASTER WAYS TO INTERPRET RETINAL IMAGES IN HUMAN PATIENTS USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI). IN TWO DIFFERENT STUDIES, AI-BASED APPROACHES FOR AUTOMATED INTERPRETATION OF IMAGES FROM PATIENTS WITH RETINAL ATROPHY DUE TO EITHER STARGARDT'S DISEASE OR AMD INCORPORATES INFORMATION FROM MULTIPLE IMAGING MODALITIES. ADDITIONALLY, BY FOLLOWING PATIENT IMAGES OVER TIME, AN AI-BASED AUTOMATED ALGORITHM IS BEING DEVELOPED TO PREDICT THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESSION OF ATROPHY OVER TIME. DEI CONTINUES TO DEVELOP CUTTING EDGE IMAGING TECHNOLOGY, INCLUDING A NOVEL ADAPTIVE OPTICS NEAR-CONFOCAL OPHTHALMOSCOPE (AONCO) THAT ENABLES PRECISE EVALUATION OF THE DYNAMIC MOVEMENT OF RED BLOOD CELLS WITHIN RETINAL CAPILLARIES, REFERRED TO AS "HIGHER-ORDER DYNAMICS". BY MONITORING RED BLOOD CELL VELOCITY WITHIN A CARDIAC CYCLE, THEY WILL OBTAIN CRUCIAL INFORMATION ABOUT VASCULAR HEALTH, NOT ONLY OF THE RETINA, BUT ALSO OF THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. THIS INSTRUMENT IS BEING USED TO ESTABLISH CLINICAL BIOMARKERS OF CEREBRAL SMALL VESSEL DISEASE, A PRECURSOR TO DEMENTIA. THIS WORK IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT DEMONSTRATES HOW THE RETINA CAN INFORM CLINICIANS ABOUT SYSTEMIC HEALTH, WHICH IS A NEW FIELD OF RESEARCH KNOWN AS "OCULOMICS". DEI HAS ALSO DEVELOPED A PIONEERING ADAPTIVE OPTICS IMAGING INSTRUMENT THAT INTEGRATES SCANNING LASER OPHTHALMOSCOPY AND OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY (AO-SLO-OCT). THIS INSTRUMENT CAN IMAGE THE RETINA WITH A 3-D SPATIAL RESOLUTION, ALLOWING FOR IN-VIVO ULTRASTRUCTURE ASSESSMENT OF INDIVIDUAL PHOTORECEPTORS IN BOTH EN FACE AND CROSS-SECTIONAL PLANES. THE IMPORTANCE IS THAT THIS ADAPTIVE OPTICS IMAGING OVERCOMES THE LIMITATIONS PRESENTED BY OPTICAL DEFECTS IN LIVING EYES, ALLOWING FOR HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES OF NOT ONLY PHOTORECEPTORS, BUT ALSO THE RETINAL PIGMENT EPITHELIAL CELLS AND THE CHORIOCAPILLARIS IN THE STUDY OF VARIOUS CHORIORETINAL DISEASES, INCLUDING AMD. ANOTHER IMAGING TECHNIQUE USED BY DEI SCIENTISTS IS THE USE OF CALCIUM IMAGING IN CONJUNCTION WITH CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY TO CHARACTERIZE THE EFFECTS OF OXIDATIVE STRESS ON THE RETINAL GANGLION CELLS. THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL IDENTIFY THE EARLY DEFICITS IN GANGLION CELL ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTION RESULTING FROM MITOCHONDRIAL DYSFUNCTION. BY CAREFULLY ANALYZING THE EARLIEST SIGNS OF CHANGES TO PHOTORECEPTOR RESPONSE AND SYNAPTIC OUTPUT TO BIPOLAR CELLS, THIS DETECTION AND INTERPRETATION COULD LEAD TO DIAGNOSTIC CLUES THAT AID DETECTION OF PERSONS AT HIGHER RISK OF GLAUCOMA OR OPTIC NEUROPATHY. AN ADDITIONAL NEW AREA INVOLVES STUDIES AIMED AT UNDERSTANDING THE EARLY STAGES OF DIABETIC RETINOPATHY. INVESTIGATIONS ARE CENTERED AROUND HOW INFLAMMATION AND CELLS FROM THE IMMUNE SYSTEM CAN MEDIATED DEGENERATION OF INNER RETINAL VESSELS IN DIABETIC RETINOPATHY. THESE STUDIES, INTEGRATING VASCULAR BIOLOGY, IMMUNOLOGY, AND MECHANOBIOLOGY, HAVE LED TO A UNIQUE HYPOTHESIS THAT ALTERED VASCULAR STIFFNESS COULD BE KEY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY DIABETIC RETINOPATHY. THIS FINDING IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE THE WORK, REVEALING A PREVIOUSLY UNRECOGNIZED MECHANISM UNDERLYING THE PATHOGENESIS, COULD LEAD TO EARLY TREATMENTS FOR DIABETIC RETINOPATHY.