What it calls TRAIN, or The Research Acceleration and Innovation Network, serves, in particular, as its “platform for venture philanthropy in medical research.” It’s also the site of a Q&A with Bill Schmidt, FFB’s CEO. In it, Bill shares the Foundation’s history—which shows it to be an early practitioner of venture philanthropy—as well as examples of how we’re currently accelerating retinal-disease research.

Pictured, above: The Foundation’s chief executive officer, Bill Schmidt

We Orioles fans appreciate that Adam isn’t marveling at how well his eyes are tracking the ball during its quick, 300-foot journey. That, of course, might distract him from catching it.

But for many researchers fighting blindness, understanding the complex process of vision, and how the retina makes it possible, is their game.

Take, for example, Erika Ellis, a medical student at the University of California, San Diego, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellow, who is receiving a one-year career development award from FFB to study retinal ganglion cells. Erika will be researching how these cells refine and package visual information and send it through the optic nerve to the brain, where the final images are created and interpreted.

While the process of seeing begins when photoreceptors convert light into electrical signals, it’s up to many other types of downstream retinal cells — including ganglion, amacrine and bipolar cells — to contextualize and enhance the signals so we can perceive motion, contrast, edges and boundaries and other visual details.

Researchers like Erika are particularly interested in how ganglion cells map to different regions of the brain. There are approximately one million axons — fibers in the optic nerve — connecting the retina’s ganglion cells to the brain, so the task is daunting. But documenting the brain-retina relationship will enable experts to better understand how they work together and how well emerging retinal treatments are restoring vision.

Ganglion cells are also an attractive target for vision-restoring treatments, because they survive long after photoreceptors degenerate from diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. Emerging optogenetic therapies are designed to empower ganglion cells to respond to light, so they can function somewhat like photoreceptors and restore vision. While their research is at an early stage, it holds promise for people who have lost their photoreceptors to the most advanced retinal conditions.

If you are interested in learning more about ganglion cells, optogenetics and the Foundation’s diverse research portfolio, there’s still time to register for our VISIONS 2013 conference, taking place in Baltimore June 27-30. You’ll also get the opportunity to meet nearly 50  of the Foundation’s research all–stars.

And if you happen to be a baseball fan, the Yankees are also in town that weekend, playing at Camden Yards, right down the road from the conference hotel. Come root for Oriole standouts like Adam, Chris Davis, Manny Machado, Matt Wieters and Nick Markakis. The Yankees have some players as well, but I can’t recall who they are.

Pictured, top, Baltimore Orioles centerfielder, and Golden Glove recipient, Adam Jones; and, above, HHMI-FFB Medical Fellow Erika Ellis.

Want to know about gene therapy? Our playlist features four videos, one each from four renowned researchers, including Dr. Eric Pierce, chairman of FFB’s Scientific Advisory Board, who does a great job summing up the vital role research plays in finding treatments and cures:

We also offer playlists covering stem cell therapy and gene discovery. And you won’t want to miss the video on why making donations to FFB’s research is so important at this crucial time:

To view all of the Foundation’s playlists, click here.

Julie Anderson admits she’s stubborn. “It’s the German in me,” she says. “I don’t ever give in.” So when she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, or RP, a hereditary disease that progressively diminishes eyesight, the mother of three didn’t crawl into a hole. She joined FFB and, for more than a dozen years, has been its Minneapolis chapter’s president. And when she heard, in the mid 2000s, that the company Neurotech would be conducting a Foundation-funded clinical, or human, trial for a treatment of RP at the University of Minnesota, she was literally the first in line to be screened for approval.

The treatment, called ECT, for “encapsulated cell technology,” involves the implantation of a protein-releasing capsule the size of a grain of rice into one eye. As part of the trial, however, participants weren’t supposed to know which eye was being treated; so both had to be operated on. This didn’t scare Julie; in fact, although ECT is designed to slow or halt vision loss, “I had hopes it would restore my vision,” she recalls. “No one ever told me that was a possibility, but that’s where my brain went.”

When notified she’d been accepted as a trial participant, the first thing Julie did was cry. “And I’m not a crier,” she says. “But I cried each time I told anyone about it, and I told a lot of people. I was just so happy—these were tears of joy.”

The surgery went well, although she had to wear bandages over both eyes for a few days and wait for the stitches to dissolve, which caused discomfort. Even after they had, her eyes were severely bloodshot—a challenge considering she’d scheduled her daughter’s high school graduation party for just 10 days after surgery. So, Hollywood-diva-style, Julie wore sunglasses throughout the event.

She also noticed something curious. The web page for her 5K VisionWalk team was showing a flurry of donation activity. She discovered, later, that the sedation given to her just prior to surgery had made her extra-talkative. And although she was told only that she’d been “entertaining and funny,” Julie had evidently convinced the entire surgical team to support the walk.

Over the next two years, Julie made roughly 20 visits to U of M, where her eyes were tested, photographed and measured for results—none of which indicated a significant change in vision, either positive or negative. She did, however, experience one side effect. “The protein inside the implant constricted the pupil in me and some other patients, so I knew which eye had the implant,” Julie recalls. “I could feel it—a nagging or pulling—but it wasn’t painful. My acuity got much better in the treated eye. The researchers attributed it to the ‘pinhole’ effect—the pupil is so small, it’s easy to focus with it.”

After the implant was removed, and Julie’s eye returned to normal—which, for her, meant no restoration of vision—she was far from disappointed. The development of ECT, dependent on the trial’s results, is ongoing and may eventually prove fruitful. And that’s what motivated Julie to participate in the first place.

“When I was diagnosed with RP, the fact that there was no treatment or cure wasn’t acceptable to me,” she says. “But I got involved with FFB knowing the research was progressing. And I wanted to help do something about it—by raising funds and, if I had the chance, advancing the science.

“Plus, I wanted to show my own kids and others I come across through the Foundation that when something like RP drops in your lap, you have a choice—you can be a person of action or a victim. It’s up to you. I wanted to show them I’d get in the trenches, do what it takes.

“So if I have the chance to participate in another trial, I’ll jump at it.”

Pictured, above: Julie Anderson.

For those of us on the front lines of fighting blindness — whether we’re raising funds, conducting  research or stand to personally benefit from the results — the device’s approval is one of the most exciting milestones in vision restoration ever achieved.

The Argus II provides only rudimentary vision; users have recognized doorways, sidewalks, flatware on a table and lights on a city skyline. But the device is enabling people who were completely blind to see. That translates into improved mobility, independence and quality of life

The Argus II’s ability to restore some basic vision is remarkable, but people want to see much more of the world — faces of loved ones, text on a computer screen, paintings in museums and so on. A device that provides the ability to perceive more detail will not only help those without any eyesight; it will also benefit many people with varying degrees of vision loss.

Developing such a device is the next challenge for companies like Second Sight. While the Argus II is equipped with a 60-electrode, or –pixel, chip implanted in the retina, the California-based company plans to develop a 256-electrode prosthesis. But it is still several years away from making it available.

There are several other companies in the artificial retina arena, with Retina Implant AG, of Germany, being the furthest along. Its device, the Alpha IMS, is a 1,500-pixel chip and, unlike the Argus II, does not require an external video camera. Approximately 36 people have used the Alpha IMS in clinical trials. Some have recognized objects, such as doorknobs and telephones. One person saw the movements of a wild goose. Another read store signs.

The company’s clinical trial is underway in Germany, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, and it is planning to extend the study to Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia. Retina Implant AG is working to overcome some technical and surgical challenges, and has not indicated when they expect to apply for regulatory approval in the United States or Europe.

A research group from Stanford University is developing a 5,000-pixel system known as the Photovoltaic Retinal Prosthesis, which it believes will provide more detailed vision than the alternatives. The group is hoping to launch a clinical trial within two years. With this device, images are captured by a tiny video camera mounted on a pair of glasses and converted to near-infrared (NIR) light. The NIR beam is routed to multiple one-millimeter chips implanted underneath the recipient’s retina and converted to electrical signals that are sent back to the brain through the optic nerve.

Other groups developing artificial retinas include: Bionic Vision Australia, Nano Retina in Israel, the Boston Retina Implant Project and several organizations in Japan. This is an active and innovative field, though developing this cutting-edge technology is no small feat. Stay tuned — I’ll report on the progress of these efforts as it is made.

Editor’s note: The photos above, which appeared in the spring 2013 issue of In Focus, the Foundation’s newsletter, were incorrectly described as being Second Sight’s Argus II device. They are Retina Implant AG’s Alpha IMS.

Photos provided by Retina Implant AG