Research to Prevent Blindness has awarded a grant of $110,000 to the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine to support research into the causes, treatment and prevention of blinding diseases. The research will be directed by Christopher A. Girkin, M.D., MSPH, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology. RPB is the world’s leading voluntary organization supporting eye research. To date, the organization has awarded grants totaling $3,855,000 to UAB.“With the generous support of RPB, we will continue to develop our multidisciplinary research efforts to understand complex eye disorders such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy,” Girkin said. “We believe in a collaborative approach that will allow our research teams to have a greater impact than simply the sum of their parts.”
Since it was founded in 1960, RPB has channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to medical institutions in the United States for research into all blinding diseases. For information on RPB, RPB-funded research, eye disorders and the RPB grants program, go to www.rpbusa.org.