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OUR PEOPLE Prof. Brian A. Barsky Professor of Computer Science, Computer Science Division, Affiliate Professor of Optometry and Vision Science, School of Optometry, University of California, Berkeley, USA Date: 23 Nov 2012 Dr. Peter Hendicott (5th left) Head, School of Optometry and Vision Science, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Date: 26 Nov 2012 Prof. Samuel Wu Professor of Ophthalmology, Camille and Raymond Hankamer Chair in Ophthalmology, Professor of Neuroscience, Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Cullen Eye Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, USA Date: 26 Nov 2012 Prof. Liu Yizhi (middle) Director, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, China Dr. Chen Xiang (1st right) Head, Academic Affairs Office, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, China Date: 14 Dec 2012 Prof. Ernst Goldschmidt Head, Danish Institute for Myopia Research, Denmark Date: 28 Jan-5 Feb 2013 014
In-focus OUR RESEARCH New Genes Controlling Children’s Eyesight Discovered By Dr. Jeremy Guggenheim, Associate Professor Over the past 30 years, the number of Hong Kong children developing myopia (shortsightedness) has risen alarmingly. Currently, more than 80% will have the condition by the time they leave school. Similarly high rates of myopia are seen in cities in mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore. Spending excessive amounts of time reading and not enough time outdoors are thought to be important risk factors for myopia. However, inherited factors are also implicated. To directly investigate the role of genetics in myopia susceptibility, researchers from 64 universities and research institutes in 13 different countries and territories teamed up to form CREAM — the Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia. The CREAM investigators, including myself and Prof. Yip Shea ping from PolyU’s Department of Health Technology and Informatics, succeeded in identifying 16 new genes involved in myopia development. The newly identified genes offer an important insight into how shortsightedness develops, while also confirming its remarkable complexity. Many of the genes are believed to play a role in the retina, the fragile layer situated within the eye responsible for detecting light. This fits neatly with previous work carried out at PolyU’s Centre for Myopia Research, in which animal studies have shown that retinal signals control myopia development. One exciting possibility is that the genes discovered by CREAM determine the strength of these retinal signals: if so, they would be attractive targets for novel drugs aimed at preventing myopia progression. Other genes identified by the CREAM team play a role in the sclera, which is the tough outer coat of the eye (the “white of the eye”). The genes in the sclera may be important determinants of the eye’s strength and rigidity. Shortsighted eyes tend to be larger than normal, so these genes may make the eyes of would-be myopes more susceptible to excessive growth during childhood. The CREAM team mainly recruited unselected members of the general public as research subjects. This differs from most previous studies, which recruited individuals or families with extreme levels of the condition. As a consequence, the genes identified by CREAM are those that contribute most strongly to the eyesight development of the whole population rather than rarely occurring variations that give rise to high-degree myopia in isolated families. This work was published in “Nature Genetics”: Genome-wide meta-analyses of multiancestry cohorts identify multiple new susceptibility loci for refractive error and myopia. 2013;45:314-318. 015
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