At the UAMS Jones Eye Institute, research is an important aspect of our work, and our faculty members are constantly looking for ways to continue our progress in the fight against eye disease.
Our researchers at the Walker Eye Research Center are working on new developments in the treatment of uveitis and age-related macular degeneration. In one year, our research group published two articles in journals and made 15 presentations at national and international meetings. Many members of our clinical faculty are involved in basic research projects.
Since 1997, our clinical research studies at the Jones Eye Institute have had an enormous clinical significance in improving ways to enhance a patient’s quality of life through the discovery of new drugs, medical devices and surgical techniques. Around 1,500 clinical trial patients are seen each year.
Sight is our most precious sense. Because vision plays such an important role in our daily lives, diseases and disorders of the eye and visual system that cause vision loss and blindness have profound effects on a person’s daily life. Without vision, we cannot act independently, recognize family and friends, read, drive a car, and perform a variety of other activities that we consider to be routine daily tasks.
Men and women of all ages, including those in the prime of their lives, are affected by a number of diseases of the eye. Thus, although seldom fatal, eye diseases cause suffering, disability, and loss of productivity for millions of people in the United States and throughout the world.
The Pat and Willard Walker Eye Research Center is dedicated to providing a state-of-the-art eye research program of the highest quality for Arkansas and the nation. Its mission is to prevent vision loss and blindness through the performance of basic and clinical research whose goal is to improve the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of a variety of important sight-threatening diseases of the eye.
The Walker Eye Research Center (WERC) is housed in over 10,000 square feet of research space located on the third floor of the Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute. Basic vision research in the areas of pathology, neuroscience and cell biology, genetics and molecular biology, pharmacology, and immunology and infectious disease is being pursued by a number of scientists at UAMS who share a common research mission. Funding for this research is provided in part by an unrestricted grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, New York, NY.
For more information, contact: Pat and Willard Walker Eye Research Center Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences 4301 West Markham, Slot 523