Preventing Vision Loss in Diabetes Patients

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Ann Elsner
Indiana University
Director, IU Borish Center for Ophthalmic Research
Founder, Aeon Imaging

(Photo courtesy Indiana University)

Indiana University School of Optometry researcher Ann Elsner is using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding provided by the National Institutes of Health to advance work that aims to prevent vision loss in people with diabetes.

Her stimulus-funded grant from NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging is complemented by a separate grant from NIH’s National Eye Institute to a spinout company she formed, Aeon Imaging, to develop a new diagnostic camera.

Elsner and her team of researchers, which includes IU senior scientist Benno Petrig, optical engineer Matt Muller, and Purdue University mechanical engineer Henry Zhang, are in the final stages of developing a low-cost laser scanning digital camera that could broaden access worldwide to a diagnostic tool used to screen patients for diabetic retinopathy.

Nearly three-fourths of the more than 24 million Americans with diabetes, if they have the disease for more than 10 years, will suffer from some form of diabetic retinopath

The new camera uses near infrared light, high-contrast laser scanning, a confocal aperture that minimizes light scatter in the eye, and inexpensive two-dimensional sensors to obtain a high contrast black and white image of the optic nerve head, which is the gateway for blood vessels into the eye. Veins and arteries carry blood and oxygen to different regions of the retina, and diabetic retinopathy can cause hemorrhaging that allows blood to leak onto the retina and cause blind spots.

With the new grants, they will be able to move forward with basic research and put the device into field trials through a new partnership with researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Optometry.

“We're excited about this collaboration, because it will allow for a fresh perspective and more independence in the assessment of the device," Elsner says. "We will be able to work with them at their health centers and make the changes to the device that might be necessary.”  Learn more>>

Elsner’s ARRA grant through the NIBIB is for $379,548.  With the funding she is able to hire Christopher Clark, a doctor of optometry who is also a Ph.D. candidate in the IU School of Optometry.