Research Projects

Visual Plasticity After Brain Damage

Damage to the primary visual cortex (V1) causes a loss of conscious vision over the same part of the visual field through both eyes. Clinically, his increasingly common cause of permanent disability is still considered intractable. However, the existence of blindsight (a largely unconscious ability to sense moving and flickering stimuli) suggests partial preservation of visual processing in cortically blind fields. The now, well-documented existence of visual pathways that bypass V1 and convey information from the eyes to higher-level visual cortical areas, begs the question: can they be recruited to restore vision in cortical blindness?

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Corneal Wound Healing and Nerve Regeneration

Corneal scarring is a major cause of vision loss and blindness worldwide – particularly in economically-developing countries. Causes include almost any disruption to normal corneal structure and function, whether from infection, trauma (chemical or physical), laser refractive surgery, corneal transplantation or disease. There are few effective means of controlling corneal scaring despite decades of research. Our ultimate goal is to understand mechanisms of corneal wound healing and to design effective therapies to treat or prevent corneal scarring.

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LIRIC – a new paradigm in refractive error correction

IRIS (Intratissue Refractive Index Shaping) and LIRIC (Laser-Induced Refractive Index Change), the clinical process developed from it, was invented at the University of Rochester by a team of scientists under the leadership of Drs. Krystel Huxlin, Wayne Knox and Jonathan Ellis. The process uses a focused, low-energy, high-repetition rate femtosecond laser to non-surgically alter the refractive index of transparent materials and tissues (cornea, lens, contact lenses and artificial intro-ocular lenses), thus changing their light-bending properties.

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