Working Together to Understand, Protect and Restore Vision
What are ‘ribbons’ doing in your eye?! A recent study by Sinha and Hoon labs uncovers new role(s) of these molecular components that fuel retinal visual processing. Every time we see, the retina must rapidly transform patterns of light into signals that the brain can understand. This process depends on specialized connections between nerve cells …
On September 15, 2026, MERI Director of Research David Gamm joined the Lee Rayburn Show on Wisconsin Public Radio to discuss ongoing MERI research and to answer questions from Wisconsin residents about ophthalmological conditions, advances in scientific research at UW, clinical trials, and the future of eye care. 🎧 Listen to the recording of the …
McPherson ERI researchers have identified a protein called CD166/ALCAM that allows scientists to identify and purify a critical type of retinal photoreceptor for the first time. The discovery, published in Stem Cell Research and Therapy, overcomes a major obstacle in the development of stem cell-based therapies designed to replace cells lost in retinal disease. You …
Congratulations to MERI Member Prof. Curtis Brandt (DOVS), who has been awarded a four-year R01 grant from the National Eye Institute to support his research in preventing herpes-related blindness. HSV-1 corneal infection can lead to loss of sensory nerve axons in the tissue, resulting in neurotrophic keratopathy. There are several negative outcomes to the nerve …
A recent publication in Nature Communications explores the human genome to identify genetic barriers that limit nonviral CRISPR editor delivery. By using a new screening platform across 19,114 human genes, researchers identified 26 cellular factors that actively constrain CRISPR editing efficiency. This research was made possible by a collaborative effort across campus, including numerous MERI members …
The UW–Madison Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the McPherson Eye Research Institute at UW–Madison are pleased to announce the recruitment of Jianhai Du, PhD. Dr. Du joined the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences as Associate Professor with tenure on July 1, 2026, and serves as the McPherson Eye Research Institute’s inaugural …
A University of Wisconsin–Madison team led by MERI RRF Daniel M. Albert Chair, Prof. Bikash Pattnaik, has developed a molecular therapy that restores vision in a mouse model of Leber congenital amaurosis type 16 (LCA16), a rare inherited childhood blindness with no currently approved treatment. How it works: Rather than editing DNA, the therapy uses …
The McPherson Eye Research Institute is proud to announce that our Associate Director Kevin Eliceiri has been named the inaugural recipient of the Spencer Shorte Legacy Award, presented by the Association of Biomolecular Research Facilities and Core Technologies for Life Sciences. Eliceiri, Professor of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is …
BrightFocus Foundation’s Macular Degeneration Research program has awarded a two-year, $200,000 postdoctoral fellowship grant to Celia Bisbach, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, for her innovative research in vision health. A summary of Dr. Bisbach’s project, “Targeting and Removing Harmful Proteins to Treat Wet AMD,” is below: We are developing a …