Research to Prevent Blindness Celebrates 65 Years of Success

NEW YORK, February 12, 2025 -- For the past 65 years, since its founding in February 1960, Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) has been funding the best researchers, in the most effective labs, asking the most important questions.

WHY?

RPB’s founder, Dr. Jules Stein, believed that strategic, sustained investment in research is the most effective way to help people who are at risk for eye diseases that cause vision loss and blindness.

He founded RPB to preserve and restore vision by supporting research that develops treatments, preventives and cures for all conditions that damage and destroy sight.

As the past 65 years have shown, Dr. Stein was right; investment in high-quality scientific research leads to life-changing discoveries.

HOW?

We fund groundbreaking research by adhering to rigorous peer-review of potential awardees. Our renowned Scientific Advisory Panel and the input of subject matter experts helps RPB to select the most promising scientific proposals that are on the cutting-edge of vision science and will move the field forward in meaningful ways.

Since its founding, RPB has channeled $425 million into eye research.

TO WHAT END?

RPB’s unwavering commitment to its mission has transformed the field of vision research and eyecare. RPB funding has been associated with nearly every major breakthrough in vision research in the past six decades.

Here are just a few examples of RPB’s impact...

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TODAY:

RPB continues to support the cutting-edge vision research that is driving treatments for conditions like AMD, glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, inherited retinal diseases, amblyopia, myopia and many, many more.

Each year, more than 2,000 new scientific studies in peer-review journals cite RPB support.

But, we can’t do it alone. We need your support to fund vision-saving research. Over the next 65 days, RPB is committed to raising $130,000 to support high-impact vision research. The fundraising goal reflects $65,000 in celebration of decades of successful discoveries and $65,000 in eager anticipation of future treatments and cures. 

Can we count on you to support Research to Prevent Blindness?

Please make your tax-deductible donation today to extend RPB's incredible impact on vision health and eyecare long into the future. Today's investment in high-quality research is the key to tomorrow's treatments. 

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BEFORE 1960:

There were many blind Americans, but no investment by the federal government to research treatments or cures. Vision loss was considered a tragic, but unavoidable fate for people with certain diseases or conditions.

AFTER 1960:

A campaign by RPB convinced Congress to allocate the first federal funds for this purpose. The creation of the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health—now the largest funder of basic vision research in the U.S.—came later that decade, after further efforts from RPB leadership.  

BEFORE 1962:

Torn retinas led to suffering and vision loss for patients. Clinicians were limited in their ability to treat this serious medical issue.

AFTER 1962:

RPB-supported researchers expedited the first laser to repair torn retinas, ushering in a new era of technology-enhanced eyecare.

BEFORE 1970:

Clinicians had to rely on non-visual and often subjective means of disease diagnosis.

AFTER 1970:

The fundus camera was created with support from RPB, revolutionizing the ability to diagnose and monitor eye conditions by providing a means of capturing stereo color photos of the back of the eye.

BEFORE 1980:

There was no clear understanding of what led to abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye, so angiogenic eye diseases could not be effectively treated.

AFTER 1980:

With RPB support, factors that prevent abnormal blood vessel growth were identified, opening a new area of research with the potential to treat and prevent diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and related conditions.

BEFORE 1992:

Gene expression in retinal degeneration was not well understood, hampering the ability to learn how degenerations could be treated.

AFTER 1992:

RPB support over several decades provided critical knowledge about gene expression in retinal degenerations. It also led to the first use of gene therapy to restore sight in patients with Leber’s congenital amaurosis in 2007.

BEFORE 2004:

The “wet” form of age-related macular degeneration, which causes loss of clear central vision, had no cure.

AFTER 2004: 

The first treatment to interrupt wet AMD, made possible by earlier RPB-supported research, was approved by the FDA. A second drug soon followed.

BEFORE 2018:

Vision loss from inherited retinal diseases could not be reversed once vision was lost. This was especially devastating in patients who lost their vision at young ages.  

AFTER 2018:

RPB-supported researchers delivered the first FDA-approved gene therapy for inherited blindness; the treatment effectively reversed vision loss in a 13-year-old patient just weeks after treatment.

BEFORE 2022:

The idea of transplanting a human eye from an organ donor into a living human, with the eye having the ability to function fully and communicate with the brain properly, was still considered science fiction.

AFTER 2022:

RPB researchers published groundbreaking work in Nature showing that they restored communication between light-sensing neuron cells in organ donor eyes. They are now building on this work in the government’s Advanced Research Project Agency for Health’s effort to cure blindness via functional whole eye transplantation.

February 4, 2025