As the Senate and House prepare to consider the Fiscal Year 2001 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, it is critical that members of Congress hear about the tremendous opportunity that exists in eye and vision research. Since 1985, the NIH as a whole has had an 82 percent increase in funding in constant dollars, while NEI grew by only 38 percent in the same time period. As a result of our past investment in eye and vision research, researchers supported by NEI are on the verge of many exciting discoveries. For example, recently scientists have mapped the genes of several heritable forms of macular degeneration and are exploring retinal transplantation and growth factors, as well as testing new treatments involving the effects of antioxcidants on the progression of age-related macular degeneration.
Macular degeneration is now the leading cause of blindness in the elderly.
Currently, no treatments exist that will reverse the slow loss of central vision that occurs as this disease progresses. The discovery of genes responsible for several forms of macular degeneration opens new avenues of basic and clinical research and will speed the development of new treatments for this debilitating disease. The NEI must be treated with parity to the other Institutes in the allocation of resources above the President's request. An increase in NEI's funding will allow an expansion of NEI extramural research partnerships and ensure that promising research opportunities are pursued. In the U.S. today more than 1.1 million Americans are legally blind and an estimated 80 million are at risk of developing potentially blinding eye diseases.