Making Strides in Protecting Children’s Vision

In his laboratory at the Dean McGee Eye Institute (DMEI), vision researcher Martin-Paul Agbaga, PhD, is working to prevent blindness in children.

In particular, Dr. Agbaga has spent two decades investigating what role the fatty acid elongase-4 (ELOVL4) gene plays in juvenile-onset vision loss in patients suffering from Stargardt-like macular degeneration (STGD3).

Through his research, Dr. Agabaga has demonstrated that ELOVL4 mediates the biosynthesis of fatty acids and that bioactive derivatives of some of these fatty acids play essential roles in the retina. He is further studying whether loss of vision associated with a mutation in ELOVL4 is caused by a loss of these fatty acids, and his team is now conducting phase 1 studies to determine if dietary supplementation with fatty acids could prevent or reverse such vision loss.

More recently, Dr. Agbaga has also turned his attention to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a retinal disease that affects premature and/or underweight babies. Building on his work with fatty acids, he and a team of collaborators are testing the hypothesis that deuterium-enhanced docosahexaenoic acid (D-DHA)—an omega-3 fatty acid—will protect preterm infants from developing ROP by reducing oxidative stress on the retina. If the hypothesis proves correct, this could lead to a safe and effective supplement for pregnant women at risk for preterm delivery and for treatment of preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Donations to the DMEI Foundation have been critical to Dr. Agbaga’s success. Designated annual gifts, as well as endowment gifts, have helped make his groundbreaking, and potentially vision-saving, research possible.

To learn more about how you can support leading-edge research such as Dr. Agbaga’s, contact Jim Durbin at (405) 271-7803 or jim-durbin@dmei.org.