Retina Foundation of the Southwest

Join the Retina Foundation to fight blindness with hope backed by science. A world-renowned research institute, the Retina Foundation develops potential treatments through laboratory science and clinical trials for patients with various eye diseases and disorders. The goal is to prevent vision loss and restore sight. Your donations help us accelerate life-changing research for those facing retinal degeneration diseases that cause blindness. Many have no cures or even treatments, so we need your help!

Patients are our focus. They are never charged.

We are saving and restoring vision.

We have the best minds working to find solutions to diseases and disorders that steal vision - many have no treatments to help at all.

We are innovators that change lives, and the need is great in North Texas.

Generous donors allow us to focus on our patients, accelerate research, and find innovative solutions.

Patients like sweet Jack. His mom shares his story below. 

When Jack was born, he was diagnosed with hearing loss. He had genetic testing to determine the cause. We found that Jack has a very rare form of Usher’s Syndrome – hearing loss AND vision loss. The genetic counselor called to tell us this condition causes some kids to be deaf and blind by age 10. Nothing could be done, but they could call me if they ever get more information. 

This was the first time we heard that Jack’s vision would be impacted by his condition, and I was distraught. Jack’s pediatrician and eye doctor recommended going to the Retina Foundation to seek more information and learn about clinical trials. When we met with Dr. Mark Pennesi, we learned he co-authored a scientific paper about Jack's gene mutation. Jack is one of only about 25 recorded patients with this genetic mutation. But we found the doctor that had actually studied it! In two years of searching, no other doctor had even heard of it.

Jack underwent testing at the Retina Foundation to help Dr. Pennesi assess his current condition. We will return each year to check the progression, at no cost to us. We learned Jack likely won’t begin losing vision until his teens or young adulthood. And we have hope, because the research Dr. Pennesi is doing could help stop Jack’s vision loss or even bring back any vision he loses. That gives us time and a plan.

I know that a cochlear implant will help Jack hear if needed. But I want Jack to be able to see too - to live a full life like his brother and sister. Please give generously to support the research that could save Jack's vision.

Pediatric Eye Conditions

• Discovered DHA in mother’s milk is necessary for infant eye and brain development. Enhanced baby formula containing DHA is now sold worldwide.
• Transformed surgical practice after discovering that congenital cataracts must be removed during a baby’s first weeks of life.
• Developed a more effective way to detect amblyopia (lazy eye) in preschool children with the Pediatric Vision Scanner. 
• Discovered iPad games are a more effective treatment for children with amblyopia (lazy eye) than the standard treatment of patching the fellow eye. 

Inherited Eye Diseases

• Identified genes responsible for inherited eye diseases and developed the Southwest Eye Registry (over 9,100 patients), paving the way for gene therapy and stem cell therapy clinical trials to improve vision and slow disease progression.
• Developed sensitive tests for early detection of retinal degeneration, independent measurement of rod and cone function, and retinal function utilizing the full-field electroretinography (ERG). 
• Invented the home vision test and app, myVisionTracker™, which enables an ophthalmologist to monitor a patient’s AMD remotely between appointments. 

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

• Created a world-class clinic to examine patients with AMD with state-of-the-art imaging and precise tools for assessing the degree of vision deficits.
• Received patent approvals in the United States, Europe, and Japan for a two-layer ocular implant to treat dry AMD by releasing drugs into the eye gradually over weeks, months, or years. 
• Collaborated with the SMU Lyle School of Engineering collaborated to develop a new patented medical imaging technology in an original video game, Eye in the Sky: Defender. Created and crowd-sourced by BALANCED Media Technology, the game embeds optical coherence tomography (OCT) retinal images to create human-computational image segmentation. As players predict the path of the alien force in the game, they unknowingly learn to trace lines used to perform diagnostic remnants of OCT retinal scans and create new datasets.