Advancing Sight Network, an Alabama-based nonprofit dedicated to preserving and restoring eyesight, has received a $25,000 grant from the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham to support the organization’s new Cellular Research and Therapeutics Division.

The grant will fund specialized equipment to evaluate cells, a crucial step toward the goal of growing cells for drug development to treat eye diseases. In the long term, the program aims to develop transplantable therapies that could prevent vision loss for people worldwide.

“This equipment allows us to take a major step forward in our cell therapies program,” said Dr. Gregory Grossman, Chief Scientific Officer at Advancing Sight Network. “There is a lack of availability of human cell models for academic and industry researchers, and a growing need for cell-based transplantable therapies. We are incredibly grateful for the partnership with the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, which moves us closer to addressing those needs.”

Barbara Evers, Executive Director of the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama, emphasized the impact of the grant: “The EyeSight Foundation of Alabama is proud to support the purchase of equipment to enable Advancing Sight Network to provide high-quality, standardized cells for vision researchers in industry and academia, including at UAB (the University of Alabama at Birmingham). We are also hopeful the equipment will be helpful in developing additional transplantable therapies, which are desperately needed by people around the world.”

Grossman continued: “Approximately 90% of the vision loss in the world is preventable or treatable. But to get to a future where that reality is possible, we need to continue the critical research and work that grants like this enable. We look forward to contributing to work that helps create that future.”

Advancing Sight Network partners with leading research institutions, including UAB, to accelerate innovations in vision science and restore sight to those in need.

About Advancing Sight Network

Advancing Sight Network (ASN) is a mission-driven nonprofit dedicated to transforming lives and restoring sight. For more than 50 years, ASN has provided donated eye tissue for sight-restoring transplants and supported cutting-edge research to cure blinding eye diseases.

Based in Birmingham, Alabama, with a regional network across the southern U.S., ASN combines local focus with global vision in its mission to honor the gift of donation, advance eye-care innovation, and bring hope to individuals and communities affected by vision loss.

With nearly 100,000 tissues recovered for transplant, research and training, ASN’s work continues to move us closer to a world where vision loss is no longer inevitable.

For more information and to learn more about the work of Advancing Sight Network, visit advancingsight.org.

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