5 Things We Learned This Month:
1. Ultrawide field imaging may enable better and earlier diagnosis of disease progression in diabetic patients
Peripheral retinal lesions may predict diabetic patients’ risk of disease progression – and spotting them using ultrawide field imaging could allow better diagnosis, staging and monitoring of diabetic retinopathy, according to one study.
2. Current retinoblastoma therapies increase secondary cancer risk – but there could be an alternative
Although highly successful, retinoblastoma radio- and chemotherapy increases the risk of secondary cancer. Now, a new target for therapy – a transcription factor called EZH2 – might offer an alternative.
3. Object motion detector cell function relies on an interneuron and a special 'sidekick' protein
The way the brain and the eye work together to create an image of the world around us is still, in many ways, a mystery – but new research is shining a light on the mechanisms behind one aspect of vision: near motion sensing.
4. Two teams have developed very different approaches to retinitis pigmentosa, but both look promising…
Around one in 5,000 people suffers from a retinal dystrophy, making it a prime target for research into preventing vision loss, and restoring vision – and recently published work pertaining to both holds great promise.
5. In patients with keratoconus, CXL halts progression up to seven years on
Corneal collagen cross-linking (CXL) has been used to treat corneal ectasias since 2003. Twelve years on, a prospective cohort study has shown that CXL-induced improvements (in both refractive and topographic measures) observed after one year afterwards were maintained at five and seven years out.
I have an extensive academic background in the life sciences, having studied forensic biology and human medical genetics in my time at Strathclyde and Glasgow Universities. My research, data presentation and bioinformatics skills plus my ‘wet lab’ experience have been a superb grounding for my role as a deputy editor at Texere Publishing. The job allows me to utilize my hard-learned academic skills and experience in my current position within an exciting and contemporary publishing company.
