© 2017 Vancouver Coastal Health
Research into the treatment and prevention of ocular disease can be furthered through the use of donated eye tissue. Although the primary goal of donated tissue is for use in transplant, when consenting for eye donation there is the opportunity to consider consenting for tissue to be used for either research or education purposes, should the tissue not be transplantable. Tissue may not be transplantable due to the health of the tissue, or because it is a portion of the eye which is not used for transplant.
Eye donations help our scientists to investigate the reasons why some people develop vision threatening eye diseases such as age related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma, for example.
Human tissues allow us to study and predict the effects of experimental drugs on eye tissues before they are further developed for clinical trials and used in patients. Human tissues also allow us to understand the reasons why certain cells in the eye die and therefore cause vision loss in these diseases.
By donating eye tissues for research, you help in our research to 1) understand the reasons why some people develop eye diseases and 2) develop treatments that will improve vision and prevent blindness for future generations.
– Dr. Joanne Matsubara
Dr Joanne Matsubara aims to elucidate the underlying pathology of the early stages of age-related macular degeneration in order to halt the progression towards vision loss. Here, she discusses some of the novel treatment strategies that she and collaborators are developing towards this goal.
Dr. Greg Moloney MBBS (Hons), MMed, FRANZCO, FRCSC
In 2012 Dr. Moloney was a recipient of a Canadian national research award: the Ron Jans Clinical Cornea Research Award for his work on new techniques in corneal transplantation:
© 2017 Vancouver Coastal Health