OHSU Casey Eye Institute is an international leader in applying ophthalmology informatics such as telemedicine, artificial intelligence, and big data to improve the quality and delivery of eye care. Experts are using these tools and technologies to help diagnose retinopathy of prematurity, diagnose corneal ulcers, improve clinic efficiency, and more.

This research group studies both the anterior mechanisms that affect aqueous humor outflow dynamics and the posterior mechanisms of glaucomatous optic nerve damage. The collaborative team currently holds 14 grants, representing over $24 million in total NIH funding, and seeks to use their collective research to design new and novel therapeutics for glaucoma.

Research focus areas include:

• Understanding how normal intraocular pressure regulation is lost in glaucoma and how to restore it in order to lower eye pressure.
• Understanding how normal and glaucomatous trabecular meshwork cells communicate.
• Investigating how the genes associated with hereditary glaucomas cause elevated eye pressure and developing approaches to reverse this.
• Determining how to treat the loss of intraocular pressure regulation using adult, patient-derived stem cells.
• Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of glaucomatous optic nerve damage.
• Developing new therapeutic and drug delivery strategies to protect the optic nerve.
• Determining the impact of glaucoma on visual processing in retinal circuits.
• Developing new imaging technologies such as optical coherence tomography angiography to improve clinical diagnosis and monitoring of glaucoma
• Improving delivery of glaucoma care by developing remote glaucoma management systems through established community health centers.

OHSU Casey Eye Institute is at the forefront of noninvasive imaging technology to detect vascular changes that may allow for treatment to prevent permanent vision loss from several eye diseases. Not only is OHSU Casey Eye Institute blazing a trail in how to use optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCT-A) clinically, but are also working to continually improve the capabilities of the technology.

The Center for Ophthalmic Optics and Lasers (COOL Lab) at Casey Eye Institute is led by David Huang, M.D., Ph.D., and is one of the leading ophthalmic imaging research groups in the world. They are dedicated to the advancement of biomedical imaging techniques in order to improve the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases. Huang and Yali Jia, Ph.D., are now also pioneers in OCT-A, which allows doctors to map out the eye's smallest blood vessels and measure blood flow. This has potential to further transform diagnosis and treatment for common eye conditions like glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic eye disease. 

Based on three decades of unparalleled expertise studying and caring for people with inherited eye disease, Casey Eye Institute has become a premier center for ophthalmic genetics and gene therapy research. With the establishment of the Gene Therapy Center and the Retinal Stem Cell Center, researchers at Casey Eye Institute are advancing our ability to understand and treat inherited retinal conditions faster than ever before.

Gene therapy involves doctors surgically injecting a healthy gene to replace a malfunctioning gene that causes eye disease. These remarkable treatments have successfully improved the vision of patients with legal blindness caused by inherited retinal degenerations. Because of our expertise in gene therapy, the Gene Therapy Center is one of the largest centers conducing gene therapy research, including:

• The world's first gene therapy treatment for juvenile macular degeneration.
• The world's first gene therapy treatment for Usher syndrome.
• The world's first stem cell therapy for retinitis pigmentosa.
• Being one of seven sites in the U.S. offering the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease, Luxturna. 
• The world's first first-ever CRISPR gene editing in vivo.