Eye Development and Disease Research
Scientists within the Division of Ophthalmology conduct basic, clinical and translational research focused on ocular development and disease.
Our team of experts identifies novel areas of study applicable to ophthalmology—with opportunities to develop new therapeutic interventions that improve care for patients. One substantial area of focus is understanding the body’s light sensing pathways.
We collaborate with colleagues from the Heart Institute and the Perinatal Institute, as well as with Cincinnati Children’s experts in Anesthesiology, Bioengineering, Clinical Psychology, Developmental Biology, Endocrinology, Experimental Hematology, Human Genetics, Metabolism, Neuroscience and Placental Biology. We also partner with scientists at numerous institutions in the U.S., Australia, China, Germany, Japan and Sweden.
As part of a multi-center clinical studies group, we also take part in traditional models of advancing clinical care. Our principal investigators help design studies and interpret data on a national and international scale.
Our Research
Our faculty, fellows and staff conduct studies within four specialized labs, as well as the Science of Light Center, a research unit that supports the growing field of study related to light sensing pathways. We work to understand how light sensing pathways influence development, homeostasis and disease. Our faculty discovered that:
- A normal developmental process can be regulated by light sensing pathways. We may be able to treat a retinal vascular disease of premature infants with the violet and blue light wavelengths that activate the retinal opsins OPN5 and OPN4.
- Mammals possess extraocular light sensing in the skin, fat and brain. This finding connects light sensing outside the eye to skin health and metabolic homeostasis. It may be possible to prevent conditions such as eczema, obesity and type 2 diabetes with a lighting environment that includes the violet and indigo wavelengths that activate OPN5 and OPN3.
- Building perfect focus during eye development is dependent on OPN5, a retinal opsin sensitive to violet-indigo light. This finding, combined with the fact that humans live in built environments with low levels of violet-indigo light explains why there is a worldwide myopia (nearsightedness) epidemic.
We also study:
- Mechanisms of eye development and disease in a wide range of pre-clinical and human models.
- Molecular mechanisms of developmental processes of the eye that improve our understanding of congenital eye abnormalities, such as aniridia, anophthalmia, microphthalmia and Peter’s anomaly.
- Macrophages and the mechanisms of vascular development in the eye, which reveals the disease processes of cancer biology, diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration.
- Retinal proteins critical for eye and brain neurogenesis. These proteins are linked to a range of congenital defects targeting photoreceptors that cause visual impairment in children and young adults.
In addition, we study other sensory systems to expand our understanding of mechanisms that affect our ability to sense pain and temperature. For example, studying the genes underlying Usher syndrome unveils molecules important for sound and light transduction. This helps us understand the molecular pathways common to the eye and the ear.
A goal of our research is to promote the use of spectral lighting for all aspects of human health.
Direct Impacts of Our Research
Our research findings make a direct impact on clinical care.
The Cincinnati Children’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit installed spectral lighting to assess how short wavelength light stimulates OPN3, OPN4 and OPN5 and affects the health of patients related to gastroschisis, intestinal failure and retinopathy of prematurity.
Our findings related to violet light and OPN5 in eye development led to assessments of the role of short wavelength light in preventing myopia.
Research By the Numbers
The ophthalmology scientists at Cincinnati Children’s are highly successful at building grant support for their work and publishing their results in top scientific journals. Our research team and faculty members secure funding from many organizations, including government agencies such as divisions of the National Institutes of Health—including the National Eye Institute, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Deafness and Communication Disorders—as well as public and private foundations, like the Research to Prevent Blindness Foundation.
