FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact:

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Sheila Champlin - (901) 448-4957, schampli@uthsc.edu or

Suzanne Thompson - (901) 448-4072, sthompson@uthsc.edu

Department of Ophthalmology at

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Receives $110,000 Grant for Blindness Disease Prevention Research

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Memphis, Tenn. (August 23, 2012) - The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) has been awarded a grant of $110,000 to support research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of blinding diseases. The grant from Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) will be directed by Barrett G. Haik, MD, FACS, UTHSC Hamilton Professor of Ophthalmology and director of the UT Hamilton Eye Institute.

RPB is the world's leading voluntary organization supporting eye research. To date, the organization has awarded grants totaling $2,445,000 to UTHSC.

"We are profoundly grateful for the ongoing support of Research to Prevent Blindness," Dr. Haik states. "Their funding over the years has enabled us to recruit prominent scientists of national repute and advance the frontiers of ophthalmic medicine. With this gift, our research faculty will work diligently to investigate translational efforts in macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease, glaucoma and childhood eye tumors."

Since it was founded in 1960, RPB has channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to medical institutions throughout the United States for research into all blinding eye diseases. For more information, visit www.rpbusa.org.

As the flagship statewide academic health system, the mission of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is to bring the benefits of the health sciences to the achievement and maintenance of human health, with a focus on the citizens of Tennessee and the region, by pursuing an integrated program of education, research, clinical care, and public service. In 2011, UT Health Science Center celebrated its centennial: 100 years advancing the future of health care. Offering a broad range of postgraduate training opportunities, the main UTHSC campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges: Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. The UTHSC campus in Knoxville includes a College of Medicine, College of Pharmacy, and an Allied Health Sciences unit. In addition, the UTHSC Chattanooga campus includes a College of Medicine and an Allied Health Sciences unit. Since its founding in 1911, UTHSC has educated and trained more than 53,000 health care professionals on campuses and in health care facilities across the state. For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu .

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