Support Our Work | De Lott Research Group
Donor Impact
Learn how donor generosity impacts our research
New research is shedding light on the complex relationship between the brain and vision, with the goal of improving diagnosis and treatment for neurologic disorders that cause vision impairment and eye pain. When neural pathways malfunction, they can lead to disabling symptoms such as vision loss, double vision, visual disturbances, and pain—yet effective treatments remain limited.
We are changing this. Our research focuses on three areas:
- Discovery through foundational clinical research – Investigating the neurological causes of vision impairment, including ocular symptoms such as pain, and developing effective treatments to improve patient care.
- Turning Research into Real-World Patient Care – Developing innovative tools for earlier and more accurate detection and monitoring of neurologic diseases affecting vision and the eye.
- Shaping Healthcare Policy – Ensuring that breakthroughs in our research and the research of others translate into better care for all.
With the support of our donors, we can continue to advance this critical work, ensuring that our discoveries lead to meaningful improvements in the lives of those affected by vision-related neurological disorders. Your contributions help drive innovation and bring hope to patients seeking answers and relief.
Donor funding makes a significant, measurable difference to researchers - especially for neuro-ophthalmic diseases. Let's accelerate research and change lives together!
- $50-$100 Expands our patient data repository in patients with chronic eye pain and other neuro-ophthalmic conditions, laying the foundation for cutting-edge discoveries.
- $500-$1,000 Lets us test a promising new scientific question in one of our ongoing studies, pushing the boundaries of what we know.
- $5,000-$10,000 Provides vital seed money to begin pioneering projects that seek to bring personalized medicine to patients with chronic eye pain and other neuro-ophthalmic diseases.
- $50,000-$100,000 Is transformative, allowing us to start and often complete critical research assessing new diagnostic tools or therapeutics for patients with neuro-ophthalmic conditions.
Listed below are just a few examples that highlight the impact donor generosity can have on our research.
Chronic eye pain will impact 5-10% of people during their lifetime, but treatmens targeting the eye itself often do not work. This is because pain in some people is arising from dyfunctional processing of sensory signals in the brain. A generous donation supported the foundational work to understand the scope of eye pain in the US and provide seed funding to generate data for an NIH grant to understand how chronic eye pain may be the result of changes in the brains of some individuals. Our chronic eye pain research program uses clinical tools, such as patient reported outcome measures and highly quantitive tools such as quantitative sensory testing, functional MRI, and biospecimens to understand the mechanisms driving chronic eye pain and how to design effective treatments.
- Optic neuritis is caused by inflammation of the optic nerve. It often affects young adults and causes pain as the eye moves. Inspired by their personal experience with his condition and desire to help others, one donor established research fund for Neuro-Ophthamology. This donation supported foundational research using machine learning algorithms to identify complex neuro-ophthalmic diseases in a data repository from healthcare institutions across the country and pioneered the application of similar methods in other sight threatening conditions. It also supported work to understand clinician decision making for patients with optic neuritis and develop a shared decision making tool that supports collaborative decision making for clinicians and patients.
- Myasthenia gravis is a rare autoimmune condition causing eyelid drooping and double vision. With the support of donors, we developed a new patient-reported outcome measure to capture visual dysfunction in patients with myasthenia gravis. These types of measures are critical to ensure that clinical trials measure outcomes that matter most to patients and pave the way for future trials of new biologic therapies. Our measure is now publically available for use in clinical trials and is used in clinics that treat patients with myasthenia gravis to track the impact of therapeutic changes on patient symptoms.
Medications commonly prescribed by neurologists and ophthalmologists are costly. Our group was among the first to quantitate these costs and offer potential solutions. We demonstrated that cost-mitigation strategies for the federal government (e.g., price negotiation) or tools that support clinicians in prescribing lower cost alternatives that are just as effective could be used as potential policy levers. This work was used by patient advocacy groups to educate lawmakers about the impact that costly medications have on the daily lives of patients.
Contact our development officer
Lindsey Baden
Director of Development
W.K. Kellogg Eye Center
