A team of eye researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have used a custom stem cell model of a rare but blinding eye disease to test whether a commonly used drug might offer hope for treatment.
David Gamm
Vision research month
June is Vision Research Awareness Month and the Waisman Center is home to a comprehensive vision research program led by David Gamm, MD, PhD. Gamm, a Waisman Center investigator, associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and Director of the McPherson Eye Research Institute, studies human retinal development and potential therapies for retinal degenerative diseases.
Waisman Center art featured at campus exhibit
Katie Sweeney, Waisman Center Communications The McPherson Eye Research Institute unveiled its new exhibit, Seeing Beyond Disabilities: Unique Insights, on January 29 in the Mandelbaum and Albert Vision Gallery at the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research. The exhibit features …
Gamm’s research aims to treat blinding diseases
Inherited and acquired degenerative diseases of the retina are a significant cause of incurable vision loss worldwide. David Gamm, MD, PhD, utilizes stem cell technology to test ways to preserve or restore vision in people …
Family supports UW-Madison research on eye disease
When Madison attorney David Walsh learned 17 years ago that his sons have a genetic disorder that causes blindness, he went into action mode.
Stem cell advance
A recent issue of The Why Files features stem advances at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, including several scientists at the Waisman Center.
Biomanufacturing center takes central role in developing stem-cell therapies
David Tenenbaum – University Communications Developing a new drug takes enormous amounts of time, money and skill, but the bar is even higher for a promising stem-cell therapy. Many types of cells derived from these …
Waisman scientists model human disease in stem cells
Many scientists use animals to model human diseases. Mice can be obese or display symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Rats get Alzheimer’s and diabetes. But animal models are seldom perfect, and so scientists are looking at a relatively new type of stem cell, called the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS cell), that can be grown into specialized cells that become useful models for human disease.
A Promising Sight
But the specks in the Petri dishes were the result of years of research in the laboratory of David Gamm, an ophthalmologist at the UW’s Waisman Center. And as members of the Reese family carefully cradled the dishes, they held the future of their descendants’ eyesight in their hands.
Vision scientist Dr. David Gamm to lead UW Eye Research Institute
David Gamm has been selected as director of the University of Wisconsin Eye Research Institute (ERI).