News

Preeti Verghese Awarded NEI Grant for Amblyopia

SKERI's Senior Scientist, Dr. Preeti Verghese - in collaboration with Drs Suzanne McKee of Smith-Kettlewell and Dr. Dennis Levi of Berkeley's Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science - was awarded a 5-year NIH Research Project Grant (R01) from the National Eye Institute to study the potential for residual stereopsis in those with strabismus and amblyopia.

SKERI Scientist Organizes Vestibular/ Oculomotor Meeting

SKERI Associate Scientist Natela Shanidze co-organized the Satellite Meeting of the Society for the Neural Control of Movement (NCM) 2022 Annual Meeting in Dublin, Ireland. The meeting, titled A fine balance: The neural control of eye and head movements in health versus disease, celebrated the scientific contributions of Dr. W. Michael King.

Catherine Agathos wins Best Poster Award at ISPGR

Dr. Catherine Agathos, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Eye/Head Movement Lab won a Best Poster Award in Basic Science for Postdoctoral Fellow from the International Society of Posture & Gait Research at the 2022 World Congress in Montreal, Canada.

International Higher Visual Function Question Inventory Study

The Higher Visual Function Question Inventory (HVFQI), created and validated by Dr. Arvind Chandna, researchers in the SEELAB, and Alder Hey Children's Hospital is a growing international study that is attracting participants all over the world, including Canada, Scotland, and the United Kingdom. This study is being done completely remote, with interviews being held through virtual meetings. It is being made available in numerous languages and even accommodating a text to speech option. This study is approved by our Institution Review Board (ethical approval) at Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute.

SKERI Mourns the Passing of Al Alden

The SKERI community mourns the death of our longtime colleague Al Alden. Al joined Smith-Kettlewell in the 1970's, and and was indispensable in his knowledge of physics and electronics. He did the hands-on design and building of many of the devices that SKERI has been famous for, including the Tactile Vision Substitution System (TVSS), Talking Signs and many more. Even after retirement, Al stayed a part of SKERI’s vibrant community and will now be greatly missed. All of us at Smith-Kettlewell extend sympathy to his family and friends in this time of loss.

SKERI Intern Wins 2nd Place Poster Award at SEMSS

SKERI undergraduate intern Kyra Deams took second place for her poster "Gait-Specific Attentional Profile, Anxiety, and Space Perception in Younger Adults" at the Southeastern Medical Scientist Symposium (SEMSS), hosted virtually by the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

SKERI Researchers Identify Potential Screening Questions for CVI

Researchers at the SEELAB and collaborators at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital have validated the Higher Visual Function Question Inventory (HVFQI) an assessment tool for vision difficulties in everyday life in children with Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) and identified 11 of the fifty-one questions (the Top-11) that were highly sensitive in detecting these visual difficulties

SKERI Mourns the Passing of Dr. Alan Scott

We are saddened to learn of the passing of Alan Scott MD, world-famous ophthalmological researcher who spent much of his career at Smith-Kettlewell including serving for many years as its Co-Director and Director. He is most well-known for his pioneering research into the use of botulinum toxin to modify the characteristics of eye muscles, as a non-invasive alternative to surgery in the treatment of strabismus or crossed eyes.