This year has been filled with noteworthy research, inspiring patient success stories, and impressive innovation for the Department of Ophthalmology.
The communications staff in the University of Colorado School of Medicine Dean’s Office covered a variety of stories from the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center that captured the exceptional care, effort, and time faculty members, research staff, and trainees put in each day.
These are the top stories from 2024.
When light hits the retina, the optic nerve carries a signal to the midbrain, where equal neural impulses are generated and sent to pupillary sphincter muscles, which cause the pupils to constrict.
How does cannabis use affect this process? Prem Subramanian, MD, PhD, professor of ophthalmology, explained his work in a study that analyzed the outcomes from a light test administered with goggles utilizing infrared videography.
There’s lots of evidence that stress takes a toll on the body, even the eyes.
Darren Gregory, MD, professor of ophthalmology, explains why stress can intensify dry eye symptoms, such as burning, redness, irritation, watery eyes, and blurred vision. He also offers a few tips on how to reduce dry eye in troubling times.
Historically, there have been few treatment options for patients with active thyroid eye disease (TED), but new research and clinical trials are revealing a new horizon for managing the rare autoimmune disease that causes tissue behind the eye to become inflamed.
TED specialist Prem Subramanian, MD, PhD, professor of ophthalmology, explains the risks and warning signs for the disease, which tends to affect women more often but men more severely.
Neuro-ophthalmologist Jeffrey Bennett, MD, PhD, explains how myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody disease (MOGAD) is different from other autoimmune disorders and why it warrants its own diagnosis.
“There has been a growing appreciation both on the clinical and research side that myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG-IgG)-related disease was distinct from other inflammatory diseases of the nervous system, particularly multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optical spectrum disorder (NMOSD),” says Bennett, who presented the new diagnostic criteria for MOGAD at the 2025 North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society meeting in March.
“It was important to distinguish those diseases from MOGAD because we were finding that about 40% of those who didn’t have the aquaporin-4 antibody associated with NMOSD were positive for the MOG-IgG antibody. This brought to light the question of whether MOGAD and NMOSD were overlapping conditions,” he continues.
All eyes were on space this year. But Prem Subramanian, MD, PhD, professor of ophthalmology, was more interested in what was happening with the eyes in space.
During SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn’s multi-day high-altitude mission in September, Subramanian and fellow researchers sent specialized optical equipment with the astronauts to gather data on their eyes. Now, with feet back on the ground, the ophthalmology researchers will analyze what the tools captured to better understand spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS) and why people on Earth get elevated intracranial pressure.
Ophthalmology researchers received nearly $4 million in R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) this year to move forward in their work at CellSight, the Ocular Stem Cell and Regeneration Research Program based at the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center.
“Restoring vision in AMD patients is a big dream, but we are continuously moving closer to that being a reality,” says Valeria Canto-Soler, PhD, associate professor of ophthalmology and director of CellSight. “These grants along with our passionate CellSight team could help accomplish something truly incredible that we believe could one day make a difference in so many lives.”
Work published by the Cochrane Eyes and Vision U.S. Project hosted at the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center may have global impact and improve access to some treatments for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD).
A systematic review found that there is little to no difference in terms of effectiveness and safety between anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) medications and biosimilars used to treat nAMD. European countries where treatment decisions are influenced by cost considerations are expected to use the findings from the review to inform practice guidelines.
In a new first-of-its-kind partnership, Lauren Mehner, MD, MPH, and Emily McCourt, MD, spend a day each month at an in-house clinic at Anchor Center for Blind Children, bringing more comfort and specialty care to high-needs patients.
“This partnership has created a beautiful canvas where we can bring research, clinical care, and communication with the entirety of a child’s vision team all to one spot,” McCourt says.
This year, the department newsroom dived deeper into some of the diseases CU ophthalmologists study and treat at the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center. Among them was retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which retina specialist Marc Mathias, MD, associate professor of ophthalmology, explains in detail.
While there is no cure for RP now, Mathias says there is a lot of clinical research happening to identify potential avenues for therapy.