History of Vision Center at Yale

Vision research has, for a long time, been an important part of the scientific endeavor at Yale University. We have developed a research program that includes work of the highest quality in many areas of eye research that have important clinical ramifications and profound importance for biology in general.

The clinical aspect of vision research at Yale began to take shape in 1961 when Ophthalmology was created as a full-time section of the Department of Surgery. Over the next ten years, recruitment of additional faculty members and the development of state of the art research programs led to the creation of a separate departmental discipline, called the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, in 1971. This department has always had an extensive research base and the first vision research laboratories were built with matching funds from NIH. The Vision Research Center was the first in the country to receive a Core Grant when NEI began the program in 1976. The department developed active research groups in glaucoma (pharmacology of aqueous secretion and pre-clinical development of timolol under Sears and colleagues) and retinal biology (Miller, Reid and others). Additional research space was freed up when the Yale Eye Center was opened in the Boardman Building in 1985, allowing for further growth in research to occur with the appointment of several new basic science faculty members.

Vision research at Yale has always been a collaborative enterprise with faculty in other disciplines. The Section of Neuroanatomy, now the Department of Neurobiology, includes an active vision research group and both formal and informal interactions between Neurobiology and Ophthalmology have greatly enhanced vision research at Yale. These interactions have included joint appointment of faculty, closer collaboration on recruitment of graduate students, jointly sponsored seminars and lab meetings, and collaborative research projects. Faculty in other departments who have focused on understanding how the visual system works and visiting faculty members, add breadth and strength to our research programs.

Our faculty members have earned numerous awards for their achievements in the field of vision research. Four past members of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science have won major awards of ARVO (Friedenwald Award - Sears, 1977; Daw, 1994: Proctor Medal - Tomita, 1975; Miller, 1989). Most of our faculty serve, or have served, on NIH study sections, on the editorial boards of the major journals in the field, and have written or edited books in vision research. The widespread recognition of our faculty at the national and international levels also has a significant impact on the number and quality of graduate students and postdoctoral candidates that apply for training in vision research. Postdoctoral Fellows who have trained at Yale are well placed in active clinical or research departments in the United States and around the world, and many continue to collaborate with department members.

With the appointment of the former Research Director, Dr. Colin Barnstable, as Vice-Chair for Research, the department has embarked on a new and exciting phase of research. Through its Core Grant, the Vision Research Center has established a bioinformatics program that has already led to the description of the complete transcriptome of the mouse retina, defined the developmental expression of over 12,000 retinal genes and mapped the evolution of important retinal molecules. In 2005, the conclusion of a successful fundraising drive led to the establishment of the Yale Lions Macular Degeneration Center, with Dr. Colin Barnstable with its first Director. This Center is expanding the scope of research carried out in the department and, in addition to maintaining a strong basic Research Program, is actively developing and testing novel therapeutic agents for this important disease.

While Vision Research at Yale has had a long and illustrious history, the exciting and important work now being carried out suggests that its most important and productive phase is yet to come.