SAN FRANCISCO and FORT WORTH, Texas—The Glaucoma Research Foundation (GRF) awarded $1.6 million in grants to support glaucoma research and Alcon acknowledged eyecare professionals and continued to offer educational resources and support for patients during this year’s World Glaucoma Week, which ran from March 8 through March 14.

“Glaucoma is a complicated disease and a leading cause of blindness worldwide,” said Thomas M. Brunner, GRF President and CEO. “A key to preventing vision loss is to detect the disease at an early stage. With generous donor support, Glaucoma Research Foundation is investing in research seeking better biomarkers to help detect, diagnose and treat glaucoma. We hope these findings will ultimately lead to a cure,” he added.

As part of World Glaucoma Week, GRF funded eight researchers with one-year Shaffer Grants. Each recipient received $40,000 to support research into the causes and possible new treatments for glaucoma. They also awarded $250,000 for a total of $1,000,000 to principal investigators at four laboratories who are working collaboratively to seek specific biomarkers for glaucoma as part of the Catalyst for a Cure research initiative.

The 2015 Shaffer Grants were made possible by generous support and gifts from The Frank Stein and Paul S. May Grants for Innovative Research, the Dr. Henry A. Sutro Family Grant for Research, Dr. James and Elizabeth Wise, The Dr. Miriam Yelsky Memorial Research Grant and The Alcon Foundation.

Alcon, who has partnered with eyecare professionals for 30 years in the fight for glaucoma, has used its patient portal, OPENINGS to educate, motivate and assist patients throughout their battle with glaucoma. OPENINGS provides personalized plans, reminders and hands-on tools for the more than 55,000 patients who are enrolled in the program. They also offer direct educational resources for patients via www.myeyes.com.

“Eye doctors are on the front lines of the battle against glaucoma, and we want to publicly thank them for all they do to preserve patients’ vision,” said Robert K. Warner, region president for Alcon U.S. “We have deep gratitude for our partners in the eyecare community and are so proud to assist them as we work together to spread the message about glaucoma.”

On the heels of January’s National Glaucoma Month, World Glaucoma Week, a unique initiative established by the World Glaucoma Foundation and the World Glaucoma Patient Association goes further to help those understand the effects of this condition while reinforcing the need for research. You can find more information at www.glaucoma.org/about.

Recipients from the Catalyst for a Cure initiative are Alfredo Dubra, PhD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Biophysics, Department of Ophthalmology, The Eye Institute, Medical College of Wisconsin; Jeffrey L. Goldberg, MD, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of Research, Shiley Eye Center, University of California San Diego; Andrew Huberman, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosciences, Biology and Ophthalmology, University of California San Diego; Vivek Srinivasan, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Davis

Recipients of the GRF Shaffer Grant are Donald L. Budenz, MD, MPH, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC - Project: Incidence of Glaucoma and Glaucoma Progression in an Urban West African Population; Paul L. Kaufman, MD, University of Wisconsin-Madison - Project: Gene Therapy for Glaucoma; Richard T. Libby, PhD, University of Rochester Medical School, Rochester, NY - Project: Understanding Axonal Degeneration Pathways in Glaucoma; Paloma Liton, PhD, Duke University Eye Center, Durham, NC - Project: Lysosomal Enzymes, Glycosaminoglycans and Outflow Pathway Physiology; Lyne Racette, PhD, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN - Project: Early Detection of Glaucoma Progression using Structural and Functional Data Jointly;  Matthew A. Smith, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA - Project: Measuring the In-vivo Effects on the Optic Nerve Head of Acute Variations in Cerebrospinal Fluid Pressure; Shandiz Tehrani, MD, PhD, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR - Project: Local Drug Delivery to the Optic Nerve Head as a Novel Treatment in Experimental Glaucoma; Gülgün Tezel, MD, Columbia University, New York, NY - Project: Molecular Biomarkers of Glaucoma