The Iowa Glaucoma Center
Our Mission & Passion:
Eliminate Glaucoma Blindness
Glaucoma is a leading cause of permanent blindness in the world. Tens of millions suffer from glaucoma and thousands are blinded by this condition each year. With appropriate treatment, glaucoma progression can be halted but at present there is no reversing damage once it has occurred.
The Iowa Glaucoma Center has a passion for eradicating needless blindness due to glaucoma.
The war on glaucoma blindness takes place on three fronts: clinical care, teaching, and research.
The University of Iowa is at the forefront in all three of these arenas:
A large family that was first described in the 1950s by Frey and Posner had dominantly inherited juvenile glaucoma. Descendants of the family seen by Dr. Harry Quigley at Wilmer Eye Institute also had early-onset glaucoma. A collaboration between Dr. Quigley and investigators at the University of Iowa (John Fingert and Edwin Stone) identified a myocilin mutation as the cause of glaucoma in this family, 70 years after it was first reported.
Dr. Alward received the American Glaucoma Society’s highest honor, being named the Guest of Honor for the annual meeting. Here he is presented with the award by Dr. Erin Boese at the 2022 American Glaucoma Society meeting in Nashville, TN.
Many researchers use adenovirus to deliver transgenes to ocular tissues that are important in glaucoma (e.g. trabecular meshwork). This study shows that adenovirus vector causes biological changes to the eye that need to be carefully controlled and may confound research results. Read more about this work here: http://www.molvis.org/molvis/v27/741/
