Pioneering Research to Prevent and Reverse Blindness

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 23, 2026 — A new study into light signals in postmortem human retinas is challenging assumptions about the irreversibility of retinal death while advancing research to restore vision.

“We show that, surprisingly, we can restore light responses more than an hour after total ischemia in postmortem human eyes and that these responses can be preserved for 48 hours,” says Frans Vinberg, PhD, a professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences who recently joined the UC Irvine School of Medicine and Brunson Center for Translational Vision Research (BCTVR).

Vinberg and his colleagues from Utah outline their findings in the Science Advances article, “Healing of Ischemic Injury in the Retina.” Their work lays the foundation for preclinical studies to treat Central Retina Artery Occlusion (CRAO), which usually results in blindness. “Since the retina is part of the brain,” says Vinberg, “our results also give hope for reversing brain damage.”

Pioneering Research

The typical assumption is that a lack of blood flow (ischemia) to the brain, such as during a heart attack or stroke, quickly results in irreversible brain damage. The retina — tissue that is part of our brain in the back of the eye — is also known to be sensitive to ischemia, based on studies of animal models as well as clinical observations.

“The human eye is very different from most animal models in that it has the central-area fovea and macula that mediates high-acuity vision needed for driving, reading and recognizing faces,” explains Vinberg. “This region might have different sensitivity to ischemic injury compared to the retinas of laboratory animal models.” He adds that their ex vivo human eye system provides the opportunity to study mechanisms of ischemic injury, which isn’t possible based on clinical observation.

In their experimental study with postmortem human eyes, the researchers restored light responses from the sensory photoreceptor cells all the way to retinal output neurons — ganglion cells — after an extended period (more than an hour) of total ischemia. They achieved this by incubating the eyes for 12 hours in oxygenated media designed to support retina function in mouse and human eyes, including in the macula.

This work expands their prior findings, published in Nature. First, it extends the time window of ischemia after which light signals can be recovered. Second, it shows that ganglion cell light responses can also be recovered after an extended ischemic period and 24 hours after optic nerve transection. Moreover, it establishes an ex vivo method that can be used to study mechanisms of hypoxic injury (that is, insufficient oxygen).

Hypoxia appears to be one of the main reasons for irreversible loss of neuronal signals caused by ischemia. “We used this approach to demonstrate that targeting specific pathways that produce reactive oxygen species, or ROS, can protect from hypoxia-induced retinal injury,” says Vinberg. They continue to work on understanding the molecular mechanisms of ischemic injury and to use their ex vivo ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) model to test drugs that can reduce or prevent IRI in the retina as a treatment for CRAO and stroke.

“Our results give premise for future preclinical studies to treat CRAO,” says Vinberg, “and for a platform that can support ophthalmic drug discovery and development.”

Advancing Vision Restoration

Access to human donor eyes is rare, particularly on the time scale where the eye is still light responsive.

“Our work establishes infrastructure, technology and protocols to recover light-responsive human eyes at scale in collaboration with eye banks and organ procurement organizations,” says Vinberg, who stresses the importance of such organizations, along with the donors and their families. “Our work would not have been possible without open-minded and dedicated people at the Utah Lions Eye Bank and Donor Connect.”

Vinberg co-founded a spin-off company, Eyescreen, to develop the platform and assays for preclinical drug testing of ophthalmic diseases in human eyes. BCTVR is looking to use the platform to develop therapies for macular eye diseases.

This work is also part of the VISION Strategies for Whole Eye Transplant consortium, led by Stanford University and funded by the Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts program of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).

“Our main motivation,” says Vinberg, “is to support global efforts to prevent and reverse blindness.”

This was a large collaborative project funded by various sources, including the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), the National Eye Institute (NEI), and Research to Prevent Blindness.

About the UC Irvine School of Medicine: Each year, the UC Irvine School of Medicine educates more than 500 medical students and over 180 PhD and MS students. Nearly 900 residents and fellows are trained at the UCI Medical Center and affiliated institutions. The School of Medicine offers multiple MD, PhD and MS degrees, and students are encouraged to pursue an expansive range of interests and options. The UC Irvine School of Medicine is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Accreditation and ranks among the top 50 nationwide for research. For more information, visit medschool.uci.edu.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UC Irvine is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UC Irvine has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UC Irvine, visit www.uci.edu.