Enhancing Collaboration

In 2001, Dr. Julian J. Nussbaum was curious to know whether researchers at MCG were interested in collaborating with physicians. So the newly appointed chair of the Department of Ophthalmology put out a call to the vision scientists to meet with him one evening after work. Their overwhelming response to the invitation told him everything he needed to know.

“Everybody came. You never know who’s going to show up when you send out an invitation like that, but there was such an interest in collaborating and getting together,” he said.

That spirit hasn’t waned since. Collaboration should only improve as Dr. Nussbaum, an interim co-director of the newly created Vision Science Discovery Institute, leads the organization with codirector Dr. Sylvia B. Smith, a professor of cellular biology and anatomy.

They say the Discovery Insitute concept will bring formal structure to an already highly interactive group of vision scientists and clinicians.

“My experience has been that vision scientists are highly collaborative,” she said. “It’s a very collegial group.” We hope to recruit physician-scientists to our team to enhance translational research here at MCG. They sat down recently to talk about their team’s multidisciplinary approach to fighting blindness, the second most-feared medical condition after cancer.

High Impact

The Vision Science Discovery Institute promotes effective interactions among clinicians and scientists who engage in high impact research and discovery related to visual function and disease.

The outcome of these interactions is expected to promote translational research that will have far-reaching clinical applications for patients suffering from blindness and visual disorders.

Blindness and vision impairment impose a devastating toll on our society.

In the over-40 age group, more than one million Americans are blind and more than 3.5 million suffer significant visual impairment.

In addition to the impact this has on affected individuals, it also costs more than four billion dollars annually in benefits and lost taxable income.