UI College of Pharmacy Bighley Chair and Professor Aliasger Salem and Mark Greiner, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences in the UI Carver College of Medicine, are among the lead researchers awarded funding by the National Institutes of Health (National Eye Institute) for a study that focuses on a specific form of cell death known as ferroptosis. Sara Thomasy at the University of California, Davis, is a co-lead. The five-year award is for $2.85 million.

Ferroptosis is a process driven by high levels of reactive iron in the cornea and thought to play a key role in the progression of Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy (FECD), a degenerative eye disease that affects roughly 6 million people older than 40 and can lead to serious vision impairment or blindness.

In patients with FECD, excess iron in corneal cells contributes to oxidative stress and ultimately cell death that causes further issues. The team will work to develop an eye-drop treatment that could offer patients a noninvasive alternative to surgery and help preserve their vision.

“This research is significant because it will clarify how genetic and environmental factors trigger premature cell death through ferroptosis in FECD and help pave the way for targeted drug therapies to prevent or delay disease progression,” Salem said.

Read further details about the methods in Iowa Now.