cataracts

David C. Beebe, PhD, the Janet and Bernard Becker Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, died at his home in St. Louis on Friday, March 27, 2015, from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was 70.

A Washington University ophthalmologist was one of 31 finalists for the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal. David E. Vollman, MD, and the other finalists recently were honored in a White House ceremony praising the country’s civil servants.

New lens replacement material may aid cataract patientsA gel-like material eventually could replace diseased and aging lenses in the eyes of patients with cataracts. The material also might eventually mean the end of bifocals and contact lenses for millions of people who suffer from presbyopia — literally “old vision” — a condition that makes it difficult for people over 40 to read without magnification. Researchers from the Veterans Affairs (VSA) Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine reported on the gel in New York at the 226th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. The technology could represent a totally different approach to the treatment of cataracts and presbyopia.