Faulty Vision for US Eye Research

This piece appeared in the Correspondence section on page 782 in NATURE | Vol 634 | 24 October 2024 

By: Stephen D. McLeod, CEO, American Academy of Ophthalmology; and member of the RPB Board of Trustees 

In June, a US House of Representatives committee released a plan to restructure the National Institutes of Health. This includes consolidating the National Eye Institute (NEI) into a broader neuroscience and brain research institute (see go.nature.com/4f5373t). As leaders of professional organizations for vision research, we wish to voice our concern about this proposal.

Tens of millions of people in the United States self-report as visually impaired or blind. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts substantial increases in conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy (DR), and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in the coming decades.

NEI-funded research has led to several scientific advances. These include drugs that inhibit blood-vessel formation (used to treat millions of people with AMD and DR), the first diagnostic, autonomous medical AI system (IDx-DR), and Luxturna, the first gene therapy to be approved by US regulators for an inherited disease.

Maintaining the NEI as an independent institute is crucial to achieving its mission of eliminating vision loss and improving the quality of life through research. Consolidation with other programmes will dilute and diminish this effort.

December 3, 2024