Researchers at NYU Langone Health were awarded $1.6 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate changes in the eye that may indicate early signs of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. The award, OT2OD038130, recognizes the eye as a part of the brain and its role as a window into cognitive and visual health.
After the initial $1.6 million award, the grant may renew an additional two years, for a total of $4.8 million as part of the NIH Common Fund Venture Program's new Oculomics Initiative.
Oculomics is a relatively new term to describe the integrative use of technology and ocular imaging to identify retinal biomarkers of systemic disease. The study at NYU Langone Health will apply a novel eye-imaging technology, visible-light optical coherence tomography (OCT), to detect biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Vivek J.
Srinivasan, PhD, associate professor in the Departments of Ophthalmology and Radiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a member of the Tech4Health Institute; and Laura J. Balcer, MD, MSCE, vice chair of the Department of Neurology and professor in the Departments of Neurology, Ophthalmology, and Population Health, will be the principal investigators. "The goal is to find signatures of neurological disease by looking into the eye, which is an easily accessible window to the brain," said Dr.
Srinivasan. "Using visible-light OCT, we are able to capture high-resolution i.
