Light for the World, the Austrian organization that helps people who have no access to basic eye care, has received support in its fight against cataracts in Africa.

 

Bausch + Lomb and Croma Pharma donated 50,000 Yellox^TM (bromfenac sodium sesquihydrate) eye drops, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is essential for postoperative treatment of cataract extraction.

 

The eye drops only have to be used twice a day, which makes the after-treatment much easier in countries where medical care is hard to get, according to Dr. Karl Rigal, board member of Light for the World. “This is of real benefit to patients in developing countries,” he says.

 

“Proper post-operative care is the key to maximizing the surgery’s results – ultimately achieving the best possible outcome for the patient,” says Dr. Calvin Roberts, executive vice president and chief medical officer, Bausch + Lomb.

 

The president and CEO of Croma, Gerhard Prinz, says that “it is our social responsibility and commitment to support the improvement of vision in economically challenged regions of the world.”

Source:

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/bausch–lomb-et-croma-font-don-de-gouttes-ophtalmiques-requises-durgence-187958931.html

Brown-eyed individuals are perceived as being more trustworthy than blue-eyed ones, according to a recent study from the Charles University in Prague.

 

How did the researchers come to this astonishing conclusion? They showed 238 participants 80 photographs of young men and women with neutral expressions such as that seen in a Canadian passport picture. Participants were asked to rate the faces on over 248 factors related to trustworthiness, attractiveness and dominance. To control the impact of facial features, the researchers switched the eye colour in the photos and repeated the test procedure.

 

The findings showed that faces with brown eyes were perceived as being more trustworthy than those with blue eyes. However, study authors specified that it wasn’t the eye colour per se that caused this perception, “but rather the facial features associated with brown eyes.” People with brown eyes tend to have round faces with large mouths and chins, which are features linked to trustworthiness in men but – surprise again – not women!

 

Trustworthiness is no simple matter…

Source:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0053285#s1

 

 

Ernst & Young has chosen Dr. Alan Ulsifer, CEO and co-founder of FYidoctors, to be the winner of its Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 award for Canada.

 

This award recognizes Dr. Alan Ulsifer’s “vision of merging optometry practices into a single organization.” Since it was founded in 2008, FYidoctors has expanded to include over 100 practices across Canada.

 

“Dr. Alan Ulsifer’s achievements are no small feat,” says Colleen McMorrow, partner and national director, Entrepreneur of the Year. “His innovative vision of merging full scope optometric practices into a single entity — the first of its kind in the country — transformed Canada’s optometry industry. These kinds of innovative solutions that overcome a struggling economy take strong leadership and an even stronger team.”

 

This is the 19th year that Ernst & Young has honoured the country’s most impressive entrepreneurs. Winners are chosen based on a number of factors, including their vision, leadership, financial performance and social responsibility.

Sources:

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1100359/calgary-s-dr-alan-ulsifer-of-fyidoctors-named-canada-s-ernst-young-entrepreneur-of-the-year-2012

 

A paper published in the Nature concludes that the eye of a fetus needs light exposure to develop normally.

 

This unexpected discovery “fundamentally changes our understanding of how the retina develops,” says study co-author Richard Lang, a researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “We have identified a light-response pathway that controls the number of retinal neurons. This has downstream effects on developing vasculature in the eye and is important because several major eye diseases are vascular diseases.” This discovery could lead to a better understanding of retinopathy in pre-term infants.

 

Until now, scientists have presumed that light plays a role in eye development only after birth.

 

The researchers were able to determine that it is important for a sufficient number of photons to enter the mother’s body by late gestation. They were also surprised to learn that these photons activate a protein called melanopsin directly in the fetus, not the mother, to help initiate normal development of blood vessels and retinal neurons in the eye.

 

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130116131405.htm

 

Researchers from Israel and California have demonstrated the importance of two proteins in maintaining a healthy retina. Their discovery could have implications for treating conditions of the immune, reproductive, vascular and nervous systems.

 

Retinal photoreceptors continually grow and elongate. If this process is left unchecked, they end up succumbing to toxicity and degenerate, leading to blindness. Fortunately, pigment epithelial cells “prune” the photoreceptors, at the same time clearing away many free radicals and toxic by-products generated during visual biochemical reactions.

 

In order to initiate the process of pruning photoreceptors, referred to as phagocytosis, the molecule Mer must play its role. This molecule, however, is activated by two proteins: Gas6 and Protein S. The researchers from the Israelian institute demonstrated in their lab that these two proteins are essential to activating the phagocytosis of retinal photoreceptors and thus protecting the health of the retina. Their findings were published in the journal Neuron.

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130106104534.htm