Kansas City, Mo. (May 11, 2017) – The millions projected to be diagnosed with myopia, or nearsightedness, in the coming years may soon have an option other than corrective eyewear or refractive surgery to restore their vision. According to new research presented this week at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), scientists are one step closer to developing a molecular treatment that could slow development of the condition.
The project, led by Jody Summers, PhD, professor of cell biology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, successfully isolated cells in the choroid of both chick and human eyes which have been found to produce the enzyme retinaldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (RALDH2). Previous research by Dr. Summers and her team demonstrated RALDH2 to be important in controlling scleral matrix remodeling. Isolation of the cells which produce the enzyme will allow future projects to identify the cells’ type and pursue development of molecular treatments that target the cells to control overall growth of the eye.
Myopia is the most common refractive error. The condition results when the eye is too long for the focusing power of the cornea and lens of the eye. High myopia can increase the risk of cataracts, glaucoma, retinal detachment and myopic macular degeneration.
“By 2050, high myopia will become the leading cause of blindness in many countries, affecting 1 billion people worldwide,” said Dr. Summers. “By finding a treatment to slow the development of myopia, we could prevent these blinding eye conditions, particularly in children who are most at risk.”
Saving Sight Director of Business Development Lynn Forest-Smith was a co-author on the project. As an eye bank that facilitates eye donation for transplant and research, Forest-Smith said Saving Sight was excited to support this important project with donated eye tissue.
“There may be no better way to honor the gift of our eye donors than through support of research like this which could help save the sight of nearly 5 billion people over the next few decades,” said Forest-Smith.
About Saving Sight
Saving Sight is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to change lives by saving sight. Founded in 1960, Saving Sight has grown to become one of the nation’s leading eye banks and is focused on providing innovative solutions to its clinical partners. Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., Saving Sight facilitates eye donation in Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois, impacting the lives of those both near and far through transplantation and eye research.
Dr. Ketcherside prepares tissue for transplant during the first Descemet’s membrane endothelial keratoplasty performed with preloaded tissue in the Midwest.
Kansas City, Mo. (May 3, 2017) – An innovative approach to transplanting Descemet’s membrane proves to offer efficiencies, making DMEK procedures simpler and more accessible for cornea surgeons. Preloaded DMEK graft tissue, now available from Kansas City-based eye bank, Saving Sight, is expected to open doors for many more surgeons to perform this type of transplant regionally and across the U.S.
In April, Christopher Ketcherside, MD, of the Kansas City Eye Clinic, performed his first preloaded DMEK graft surgery – a first of its kind in the Midwest.
“It’s always appealing to do things in a more efficient fashion,” said Dr. Ketcherside. “I think that any time we can try to perform steps like this in the eye bank, we’ve learned that it’s probably a good thing. If there are going to be errors with peeling or loading the tissue during that part of the procedure, those issues can be eliminated from the operating room.”
Preloaded DMEK grafts provided by the eye bank can potentially reduce barriers to entry for surgeons considering this advanced transplantation technique. The tissue comes prepared, preloaded, and shipped in a modified Jones tube. This innovative preparation by Saving Sight saves the surgeon time in the operating room. Further clinical evaluation is needed to determine the extent to which patient outcomes are improved with preloaded DMEK grafts.
“We’re thrilled to help make DMEK more accessible to surgeons by providing preloaded tissue,” said Tony Bavuso, CEO of Saving Sight. “Our goal is to partner with eye care professionals to provide innovative solutions that help patients.”
About Saving Sight
Saving Sight is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to change lives by saving sight. Founded in 1960, Saving Sight has grown to become one of the nation’s leading eye banks and is focused on providing innovative solutions to its clinical partners. Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., Saving Sight facilitates eye donation in Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois, impacting the lives of those both near and far through transplantation.
On Saturday, January 18, Saving Sight’s CEO Tony Bavuso delivered a report at the Lions MD26 Council of Governors meeting, encouraging the group to provide continued support to KidSight.
The program is positioned for major growth with a goal to screen many more Missouri children in the short term. However, in order to realize and resource that goal the organization must raise additional funds for operational growth.
Bavuso urged attendees at Saturday’s meeting, as well as a smaller group of advocates at a meeting on Friday, to extend the legacy that Lions created in starting our eye bank in 1960 to growing KidSight into the future. If you’d like to make a donation in support of KidSight, please visit www.kid-sight.org.
Over the past several months, Saving Sight’s board and leadership have explored ways to best use organizational assets to sustain the impact of our programs in an increasingly competitive non-profit environment. As a first step in this process, four acres of underutilized property at Saving Sight’s Columbia location were listed for sale. A portion of proceeds from the sale were to be earmarked for building improvements in the outdated Columbia facility necessary to continue operations in the building.
Once the land was listed for sale, the Saving Sight team worked with a local real estate developer to conduct a facility analysis of the Columbia office. The report identified the building’s HVAC system would need to be replaced, the elevator replaced or decommissioned, the parking lot resurfaced and exterior lighting addressed just to improve some of the basic building functions. Through the facility analysis, it became apparent that the investment required to bring the building’s systems up to date and change building layout to improve workflow for local operations would be greater than the value of the building at the conclusion of improvements. Seeing a clear need for a more modern and usable space for operations in Columbia, Saving Sight’s board of directors voted to list both the Columbia building and land it sits on for sale at their December meeting. The board action was explicit that while the current Columbia facility should be listed for sale, Saving Sight will continue all local operations, including the Lions Volunteer Center, in the Columbia area. Those functions and staff members will simply be relocated to a different and more updated facility in Columbia that better meets the organization’s needs upon the sale of the current building.
We look forward to keeping Lions volunteers and other key local supporters up-to-date on the progress of the building sale and future site of our local Columbia operations as new information is available.
Staff at Capital Region Medical Center dedicated a rose in honor of their donors on the 14th Annual Donate Life Rose Parade Float.
Each year, Saving Sight works to coordinate the eye donation process for donors in partner hospitals across Missouri, Kansas and central Illinois. Saving Sight partner relations coordinators meet with the partner hospitals as the year comes to a close to honor the gifts of their donors on a national stage during the annual Tournament of Roses – Rose Parade.
“This year our PRCs met with an administrator at 26 of our partner hospitals and partnered with Midwest Transplant Network to meet with 14 shared hospital partners. The number of hospital administrators who participate in this program is growing each year. It’s a great way for Saving Sight to promote in the local communities the culture of donation within these hospitals,” said Michala Stoker, Director of Partner Relations.
Saving Sight asked each partner hospital to dedicate a rose in honor of the hospital’s eye donors that was carried on the annual Donate Life Rose Parade Float. Each signed a vial with a personal message from the hospital in memory of the hospital’s eye donors. This year, the vial carried a white Akito rose on the Rose Parade Float to honor the donors and help spread the simple, life-giving message that eye, organ and tissue donation heals and saves lives.
Memorial Medical Center dedicated a rose to honor their donors on the 14th Annual Donate Life Rose Parade Float.
“It’s an incredible gift these donors make through eye donation. They forever change the lives of corneal transplant recipients,” said Saving Sight Chief Executive Officer Tony Bavuso. “We’re excited to work with our partner hospitals to honor that gift by dedicating a rose that will be seen around the world as part of this year’s Tournament of Roses Parade and serve as a testament to the healing power of the gift of sight.”
The 128th Annual Tournament of Roses – Rose Parade was broadcast around the world from Pasadena, California on January 2, 2017. The 14th Annual Donate Life Rose Parade Float won the Theme Trophy for their Teammates in Life float that honored the heroes who helped others through the gift of sight and the gift of life.
Across our service region, Saving Sight recovered, processed and placed 3,016 corneas for transplant in 2015. Because of the compassion of donors, families and staff at partner hospitals, Saving Sight changed the lives of an average of eight people every day through the gift of sight.
Over 48,000 corneal transplants took place across the country to restore sight for those in need last year and more than 15,000 Americans gave life through organ donation. Still, today more than 120,000 men, women children await lifesaving organ transplants in the United States. If you haven’t registered as an eye, organ and tissue donor yet, you can make a difference by choosing to give life today at registerme.org.
Sonja Buckley, KidSight vision screening technician, screens children at the 2nd Annual 24th Senatorial District Care Fair on October 8.
On Saturday, October 8 Saving Sight teamed up KidSight, Senator Jill Schupp and local state representatives to host the 2nd Annual 24th Senatorial District Care Fair at the Overland Community Center. The Care Fair introduced underserved members of the community to local health and wellness resources and provided access to basic preventative health services to promote healthy communities in the surrounding area.
“People accessed all these services at no cost and we think it’s a great event to bring the community together around making sure that people are healthy and fit and know where to go when they need healthcare resources,” said Senator Schupp.
Nearly 250 community members came to take part in the Care Fair. This was a
huge increase in attendance from last year’s inaugural event. The increase in participants was attributed to improved event promotion and to an increase in
local health vendors offering health services at the Care Fair.
“This event today had over 30 different vendors, everything from vision screening and glaucoma screening, to flu shots, to blood pressure screenings, but also mental health services and services for kids,” said Senator Schupp.
In addition to health vendors offering hearing screenings, blood pressure checks, vaccinations, nutrition education, fitness instruction and other healthcare informational services, Saving Sight provided KidSight Vision Screenings for children and Healthy Vision Screenings for adults. In all, 26 children and 35 adults stopped by the Saving Sight booth for a screening. Sonja Buckley, KidSight vision screening technician, provided screenings for participants of all ages and was also able to provide attendees with reading glasses from Saving Sight’s Eyeglass Recycling Program. The readers were a huge hit, and those who received a pair were grateful to have the glasses to help them see to read in their daily life.
“I want to say thank you to Saving Sight who really encouraged me to put on this health fair a second and third year,” said Senator Schupp. “Saving Sight provides vision screenings for children ages 6 months to 6 years. What we know is that, when we catch it early, they can help prevent childhood vision loss and that is so important to ensuring that our children have a healthy future, do well in school and do well in life.”
The project, led by Jody Summers, PhD, professor of cell biology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, successfully isolated cells in the choroid of both chick and human eyes which have been found to produce the enzyme retinaldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (RALDH2). Previous research by Dr. Summers and her team demonstrated RALDH2 to be important in controlling scleral matrix remodeling. Isolation of the cells which produce the enzyme will allow future projects to identify the cells’ type and pursue development of molecular treatments that target the cells to control overall growth of the eye.
On Saturday, January 18, Saving Sight’s CEO Tony Bavuso delivered a report at the Lions MD26 Council of Governors meeting, encouraging the group to provide continued support to KidSight.
Over the past several months, Saving Sight’s board and leadership have explored ways to best use organizational assets to sustain the impact of our programs in an increasingly competitive non-profit environment. As a first step in this process, four acres of underutilized property at Saving Sight’s Columbia location were listed for sale. A portion of proceeds from the sale were to be earmarked for building improvements in the outdated Columbia facility necessary to continue operations in the building.
