Health Matters: UAMS Doctor Working to Cure Disease that Causes Blindness
By: Jocelyn Tovar, KARK 4 News
Updated: November 28, 2012
An opthamologist at UAMS is researching a disease that causes 20 percent of all blindness, and hopes to find a cure within three years.
Dr. Naliai Bora is often found in her lab at UAMS where she's been conducting research on inflammatory eye disease for more than two decades.
Patients with the disease are treated by simply alleviating their symptoms with steroid treatments, but Dr. Bora's research is moving them closer to a cure.
"We identified a protein that causes the disease in animals," Dr. Bora says. "We can induce tolerance to this disease so animals do not develop this disease."
A $1.1 million grant from the National Institute of Health will mean Dr. Bora could reach her goal of translating that tolerance to the disease in humans within the next three years.
Dr. Bora's work with age-related macular degeneration is now what she's trying to find the funding to prevent as well.
Dr. Naliai Bora is often found in her lab at UAMS where she's been conducting research on inflammatory eye disease for more than two decades.
Patients with the disease are treated by simply alleviating their symptoms with steroid treatments, but Dr. Bora's research is moving them closer to a cure.
"We identified a protein that causes the disease in animals," Dr. Bora says. "We can induce tolerance to this disease so animals do not develop this disease."
A $1.1 million grant from the National Institute of Health will mean Dr. Bora could reach her goal of translating that tolerance to the disease in humans within the next three years.
Dr. Bora's work with age-related macular degeneration is now what she's trying to find the funding to prevent as well.
