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WSU News Service

NIH Grant Supports Gene Mapping for Eye Condition

A four-year grant worth $1.3 million from the National Institutes of Health will support research at Washington State University Spokane on the number-one cause of corneal transplants in the developed world.

Bassem Bejjani, MD, a research professor at WSU Spokane and co-director of molecular diagnostics at Sacred Heart Medical Center, received the funding for his research on keratoconus, or cone-shaped cornea, caused by a thinning of the cornea.

A genetic researcher who has conducted federally funded research on congenital glaucoma, Bejjani says keratoconus is not currently known to be a genetic condition. However, during a trip to Ecuador to collect samples for his work on congenital glaucoma, which is a genetic condition, he said he met a doctor who told him about nearly three dozen families with kertoconus, suggesting the possibility of a genetic component.

Bejjani and his colleague from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Richard A. Lewis, collected samples from some of these families and submitted a proposal to the NIH. The new funding will support mapping of the genes in an effort to find a genetic link.

Click for the full story from the WSU News Service and WSU Spokane.

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