FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

 

For more information, contact:

Elizabeth Maynard-Garrett, APR

UTHSC Communications and Marketing

(901) 448-4957

 

RESEARCH TO PREVENT BLINDNESS AWARDS GRANT TO UT OPHTHALMOLOGY DEPARTMENT

 

            Memphis, Tennessee (July 18, 2005) – Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) has awarded a $110,000 grant to the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) to support research into the causes, treatment and prevention of blinding diseases. The research will be directed by Barrett G. Haik, MD, UTHSC Hamilton Professor and chair of the ophthalmology department.

RPB is the world’s leading voluntary organization supporting eye research. To date, the organization has awarded grants totaling 1.2 million dollars to the UT Health Science Center.

Ranked ninth in the nation for clinical care, the Hamilton Eye Institute is the only university eye center providing an advanced level of vision care within a 200-mile radius of Memphis. Its mission is to provide advanced treatments for the management of ocular diseases and complex vision problems.

Dr. Haik commented, “Our investigators are pushing the envelope of both basic and clinical research on a daily basis.  Our goal is to heal and restore optimum vision to all patients and most importantly, to make significant progress toward finding a cure for sight threatening diseases.”

Since being 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 information on RPB, RPB-funded research, eye disorders and the RPB Grants Program, go to www.rpbusua.org.

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