Breakthroughs | BrightFocus Foundation (2024)

Our story starts here.

BrightFocus was founded on May 15, 1973. Our charter was to fund research to find cures for the most pressing health problems.

The BrightFocus national office in Clarksburg, Maryland.

All Breakthroughs

National Glaucoma Research, a program of BrightFocus Foundation, begins.

Glaucoma

All Breakthroughs

Surgeons at the University of Utah transplant the first permanent artificial heart into a patient.

BrightFocus funded early research supporting the artificial heart, one of the long-sought holy grails of modern medicine, and provided critical early funding to Dr. Willem Kolff, a Dutch physician known as the father of artificial organs. Dr. Kolff led the team that worked on the artificial heart that was implanted into 61-year-old Barney Clark in 1982 and designed the first artificial kidney.

Dr. Willem Kolff, courtesy of the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah.

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Alzheimer’s Disease Research, a program of BrightFocus Foundation, begins.

Alzheimer's

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Researchers uncover new genetic causes of inherited Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers, including BrightFocus grantees Drs. Rudolph Tanzi, Gerard Schellenberg, John Hardy, and Peter St. George-Hyslop, discover a new area of chromosome 14 associated with familial Alzheimer’s disease, setting the stage for an improved understanding of hereditary genes for Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Gerard Schellenberg (left) and colleagues at the University of Washington.

Alzheimer's

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Key gene identified as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s.

BrightFocus-funded scientists Drs. Allen Roses, Peter St. George-Hyslop, Thomas Bird, and Gerard Schellenberg identify apolipoprotein E (APOE) as a major risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Today, APOE is the most common gene associated with Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer's

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Alzheimer’s research expands in Europe.

BrightFocus helped established Alzheimer’s research programs in the Netherlands (1993), Germany (1995), and Belgium (1995), broadening philanthropic support for Alzheimer’s research internationally.

BrightFocus-supported Alzheimer's research in Europe begins in the Netherlands in 1993.

Alzheimer's

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Researchers lay the groundwork for a better understanding of age-related macular degeneration—a disease that leads to loss of central vision.

Renowned English ophthalmologist Alan C. Bird, a member of the BrightFocus Scientific Review Committee, and his team, coin the terms “early and late age-related macular degeneration” and “dry and wet late age-related macular degeneration,” creating an international classification and grading system for age-related maculopathy and age-related macular degeneration.

Image of a retina with dry age-related macular degeneration.

Macular Degeneration

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Stanley Prusiner, MD, receives Nobel Prize for groundbreaking prion discovery with links to Alzheimer’s disease.

Grantee Stanley Prusiner, MD, was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his groundbreaking discovery and definition of prions, infectious proteins in the brain that cause mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. There are similarities between the loss of brain function in prion diseases and in Alzheimer’s disease, and an understanding of how prion diseases begin and develop may one day lead to a treatment and a cure for Alzheimer’s. Dr. Prusiner served as co-chair of our Alzheimer's Disease Research Scientific Review Committee and became an honorary BrightFocus board member in 2007.In 2010, President Obama awarded him the National Medal of Science, the country’s highest honor for science and technology.

Dr. Stanley Prusiner

Alzheimer's

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Macular Degeneration Research, a program of BrightFocus, begins.

Macular Degeneration

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Paul Greengard, PhD, receives Nobel Prize for his foundational insight that nerve cells communicate with each other.

A 1986 BrightFocus grant led Paul Greengard, PhD, to initiate a series of milestone experiments into protein phosphorylation in specific brain regions related to Alzheimer's disease. His most famous discovery, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics or Medicine in 2000, is that nerve cells communicate with each other through chemical and electrical signaling working in tandem, known as signal transduction. This discovery laid the foundations of modern neuroscience.

Dr. Paul Greengard

Alzheimer's

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Researchers develop first optical test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.

Following his exciting discovery that Alzheimer’s disease can be detected in the lens of the eye, Lee Goldstein, MD, PhD, and his team developed new optical tests that can potentially diagnose and monitor the disease from the beginning stages, a discovery that could lead to an accessible, noninvasive way to detect, track, and treat Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Lee Goldstein (far right) and his team.

Alzheimer's

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BrightFocus expands Alzheimer’s research in Europe through the establishment of Alzheimer’s France.

Alzheimer's research in Europe expands to France.

Alzheimer's

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First anti-VEGF treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration.

Grantee Peter Campochiaro, MD, is among the first to prove the benefits of suppressing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), leading to the development of a novel anti-VEGfa*ge-related macular degenerationtreatment method that’s still the gold standard for helping to slow or stop further vision loss in wet age-related macular degeneration patients.

Eye drops are used in a patient.

Macular Degeneration

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Researchers discover the “complement pathway” in age-related macular degeneration—central to the development of the first and only treatment for geographic atrophy, a leading cause of blindness.

This discovery would be pivotal to the 2023 FDA approval of the first complement pathway drug to treat geographic atrophy, an advanced and severe form of age-related macular degeneration. Early research funded by BrightFocus helped lay the foundation for our understanding of the complement pathway, part of the immune system, as being involved in onset of age-related macular degeneration.

Image of an eye with geographic atrophy, an advanced and severe form of dry age-related macular degeneration.

Macular Degeneration

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Launch of educational workshop for early-career scientists.

BrightFocus offers its first workshop dedicated to Alzheimer's disease research, now known as Alzheimer's Fast Track, for PhD students and postdoctoral fellows to learn from world-renowned experts in the field. Today, the program includes Macular Fast Track and Glaucoma Fast Track and has educated thousands of early-career scientists from around the world.

Alzheimer’s Fast Track students receive feedback on their mock grant proposal from Laura Cox, PhD, assistant professor in the department of neurology at the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, one of the program’s speakers.

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Alzheimer's

Grantees create the first noninvasive technique to measure eye pressure.

Grantee Joel Schuman, MD, and his team create the first noninvasive technique to measure eye pressure—the most important factor to consider in glaucoma. For the first time, scientists can visualize and measure how fast drainage in the front of the eye occurs without touching the eye and without any bright lights.

Dr. Joel Schuman (center) and his team circa 1995.

Glaucoma

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Expanding research into sex-based differences in Alzheimer’s disease.

Three BrightFocus-funded investigators win an award to investigate gender-based differences in Alzheimer's disease diagnosis and treatment. Their work examines whether certain genes are expressed differently in men and women to explain the increased risks for Alzheimer’s in women and explores expanding technology to better predict sex-based differences in Alzheimer’s disease.

BrightFocus researchers explore the role of gender in Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's

All Breakthroughs

A new inflammatory marker discovered for wet age-related macular degeneration.

Sarah Doyle, PhD, and Matthew Campbell, PhD

Macular Degeneration

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Bringing rigorous science to caregiving.

Dr. Quincy Samus

Alzheimer's

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Closer to the possibility of a vaccine to help rid the brain of toxic tau.

A research team led by grantees Kristen Funk, PhD, and Marc Diamond, PhD, brings us closer to the possibility of a vaccine by researching antibody immunotherapies to help rid the brain of toxic tau—and possibly keep it from spreading—in Alzheimer’s disease. Results of in vitro experiments show that monoclonal antibodies they’ve developed can disarm the harmful effects of abnormal tau protein, laying the groundwork for present-day clinical trials using anti-tau antibodies.

Kristen Funk, PhD, and Marc Diamond, PhD

Alzheimer's

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Advances in gene-editing technology improve the study and treatment of age-related macular degeneration.

BrightFocus-funded researchers, including Don Zack, MD, PhD, expand CRISPR gene-editing technology and develop a modified CRISPR technique that improves the speed and efficiency of gene function studies, aids in the development of new cellular models of diseases, and eventually could help treat genetic conditions.

A 3D rendering of the treatment and adjustment of DNA.

Macular Degeneration

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First clinical trial to test a new glaucoma treatment focused on neuroprotection and vision restoration.

Grantee Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, leads a BrightFocus-funded, first-of-its-kind Phase 2 clinical trial to test a new glaucoma treatment consisting of an experimental cell therapy to protect the optic nerve. In this innovative approach, a capsule is implanted in the eye that delivers a steady stream of growth factors to protect damage to the optic nerve, which could possibly improve vision in patients with glaucoma.

Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg

Glaucoma

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First-ever creation and treatment of retinal ganglion cells using adult skin cells.

Dr. Jason Meyer presents his research at BrightFocus' gala in June 2022.

Glaucoma

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Creation of first-ever International Brain Bank for Down Syndrome-Related Alzheimer’s Disease.

With BrightFocus support, grantee Ann-Charlotte "Lotta"Granholm-Bentley, PhD, DDS, created the first-ever International Brain Bank for Down Syndrome-Related Alzheimer’s Disease, a collaborative research network that develops and shares high-quality biological research samples and studies information about the Down syndrome population, of which as many as 80% have Alzheimer’s pathology by the time they are in their 40s and 50s.

Dr. Lotta Granholm-Bentley

Alzheimer's

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Scientists discover genetic causes and biochemical mechanisms of two rare inherited neurodegenerative diseases.

Grantee Huda Y. Zoghbi, MD, wins a Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for her discoveries of the genetic causes and biochemical mechanisms of two rare inherited neurodegenerative diseases, spinocerebellar ataxia and Rett syndrome. These findings help scientists better understand other neurodegenerative and neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s, and led Dr. Zoghbi to pursue dementia research, for which she was later awarded a BrightFocus grant.

Dr. Huda Y. Zoghbi (left) and colleague.

Alzheimer's

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First citizen science online game speeds up Alzheimer’s research.

To accelerate Alzheimer’s research, BrightFocus grantee Pietro Michelucci, PhD, created the first-ever citizen science online game Stall Catchers, where participants look at videos from the brains of mice and try to identify vessel blockages, or “stalls,” to help researchers at Cornell University. Scientists have pinpointed the link between stalls and Alzheimer’s disease in mouse models and have successfully reversed some symptoms by reducing the number of stalls. While documenting these stalls is very time-consuming for researchers, citizen scientists playing the BrightFocus-funded Stall Catchers have drastically increased research output.

The online game Stall Catchers accelerates Alzheimer's research.

Alzheimer's

All Breakthroughs

New class of glaucoma medication available.

The launch of Rhopressa, the first approved rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK) inhibitor—fueled by early BrightFocus-funded research—represents the first entirely new class of glaucoma medication to become available in more than two decades, since the first prostaglandin analog drug was approved in 1996. Early work by BrightFocus grantee Haiyan Gong, MD, PhD, proved this class of drugs could relieve eye pressure.

Dr. Haiyan Gong

Glaucoma

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New Alzheimer’s model reveals genetic changes associated with cell-aging processes.

GranteeJerome Mertens,PhD, successfully reprograms cultured skin cells from Alzheimer’s patients directly into brain neurons, creating a brain model that is not only genetically unique to each patient but also biologically “remembers” the age of the individual. This research could lead to giving Alzheimer's neurons their own memory back, paving the way for therapeutics to prevent or treat the disease.

Dr. Jerome Mertens (second from right) and colleagues.

Alzheimer's

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Sleep deprivation confirmed as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s.

In a seminal BrightFocus-funded publication on sleep and beta amyloid, coauthors and grantees Sarah Fritschi, PhD, Brendan Lucey, MD, and David Holtzman, MD, PhD, are among the first to confirm that sleep deprivation is a risk factor for—not just a consequence of—Alzheimer's disease. The findings reveal that lack of sleep alone helps drive the disease, suggesting that good sleep habits may help preserve brain health.

GABAergic neurons that play a critical role in sleep are pictured in red in a mouse brain. Photo courtesy of Sarah Fritschi, PhD.

Alzheimer's

All Breakthroughs

First Alzheimer’s blood test becomes available in the U.S.

The PrecivityAD blood test identifies early signs of Alzheimer's. Photo courtesy of C2N Diagnostics.

Alzheimer's

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Deep sleep protects against Alzheimer's, new research shows.

A team including grantee Ksenia Kastanenka, PhD, finds that sleep quality may serve as a marker of future Alzheimer’s disease risk and the speed of progression. Sleep disturbance is associated with a higher rate of future beta-amyloid accumulation and deep sleep can clear toxic beta-amyloid and tau from the brain, the researchers confirm.

Amyloid plaques (blue) appear among brain blood vessels (red) and cortical neurons (green). Deep sleep can clear Alzheimer’s-causing amyloid plaques from the brain. Photo courtesy of Ksenia Kastanenka, PhD.

Alzheimer's

All Breakthroughs

Blood vessel changes in the eye may reveal early dementia.

Dr. Amir Kashani

Alzheimer's

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New Alzheimer’s blood biomarker discovered.

Led by grantee Thomas Karikari, PhD, a research team identifies a less frequently measured biomarker of tau in the blood, BD-tau, that positively correlates with neurodegeneration and cognitive impairment before symptoms begin. BD-tau outperforms existing blood tests used to detect Alzheimer’s-related neurodegeneration and could lead to earlier and more accurate Alzheimer’s diagnoses.

Dr. Thomas Karikari

Alzheimer's

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Critical funding for treatment of traumatic brain injuries, which are associated with dementia later in life.

BrightFocus and the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium jointly award $500,000 grants to researchers at Astrocyte Pharmaceuticals and a partnership between Mitochon Pharmaceuticals and the University of Kentucky for the study of neuroprotective therapeutics for the treatment of brain injuries, which could lower risk of subsequent Alzheimer’s and related dementias.

Potential therapies target traumatic brain injuries, which can lead to dementia.

Alzheimer's

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First-ever driving test to predict Alzheimer’s disease.

Grantee Ganesh Babulal, PhD, develops a first-of-its-kind driving test that can identify Alzheimer’s disease before other symptoms appear. By evaluating driving behavior, the team detects subtle changes in cognition that might be missed by traditional testing.

A researcher from Dr. Babulal’s lab holds a device that collects data on driving behaviors in older adults that can serve as biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. Photo courtesy of Ganesh Babulal, PhD.

Alzheimer's

All Breakthroughs

Pioneering work by grantee Ilyas Washington, PhD, leads to FDA "Breakthrough Therapy" designation for potential Stargardt disease treatment, with possibilities for treating dry AMD—two vision diseases that can lead to blindness.

BrightFocus awarded Dr. Washington one of the first research grants of his scientific career, allowing him to begin exploring a possible role for enriched vitamin A in treating vision disease.

Dr. Ilyas Washington accepts the 2022 Bench to Bedside Award at BrightFocus' gala.

Macular Degeneration

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A team of medical researchers and bioengineers, including grantee Ruchira Singh, PhD, develop the first-ever 3D cell matrix model of the human eye that replicates wet age-related macular degeneration.

The breakthrough discovery can help pinpoint what causes the disease, develop drug treatments, and determine how well drugs could work in specific patients, offering a more personalized approach to treatment.

Dr. Ruchira Singh (left) and colleague in the lab.

Macular Degeneration

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First successful cell transplantation gives hope for new glaucoma treatment.

Researchers, including grantee Petr Baranov, MD, PhD, and team at Harvard Medical School, successfully transplant—for the first time—lab-grown retinal ganglion cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells into the eyes of mice. Based on this work, researchers estimate that people with late-stage glaucoma could begin receiving vision-restoring transplants in the next 10 years.

Retinal ganglion cells (blue, green, and red) receive information about the light our eyes detect from other cells in the retina at structures called dendrites (red) and then relay it to the brain via axons. Credit: National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health (NEI/NIH)

Glaucoma

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Researchers develop a new wireless device to diagnose and monitor glaucoma.

BrightFocus-funded scientists including J. Crawford Downs, PhD, develop a new implantable device that could change the way glaucoma is diagnosed. The wireless device measures intraocular eye pressure and a variety of pressure parameters in the eye.

Dr. J. Crawford Downs

Glaucoma

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First-ever reversal of age-related vision loss and eye damage from glaucoma in mice.

Meredith Gregory-Ksander, PhD, and Bruce Ksander, PhD

Glaucoma

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First-of-its-kind artificial intelligence model developed that can one day detect Alzheimer’s disease by reading a patient’s retina images.

A team of Hong Kong scientists led by grantee Carol Cheung, PhD, develops a faster way to screen for Alzheimer’s disease using an AI model that reads retina scans. This highly accurate method could enable people, who would receive their results immediately, to benefit from early intervention and treatment.

A close-up view of the retina, which could reveal critical signs of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's

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Historic first patient-derived stem cell therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration.

Grantees Kapil Bharti, PhD, and Amir Kashani, MD, PhD, were part of the NIH clinical trial team that pioneered the first patient-derived stem cell therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration. BrightFocus-funded early research helped pave the way for this groundbreaking surgery.

Dr. Kapil Bharti (left) and Dr. Amir Kashani

Macular Degeneration

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