A University of Iowa research team was recently awarded access to the genotyping resources at the Center for Inherited Disease Research, which is supported by 14 institutes of the National Institutes of Health.

The access -- valued at more than $750,000 -- gives a boost to UI research to find genetic factors associated with glaucoma. The access will dramatically accelerate the speed with which the team, led by John Fingert, M.D, Ph.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology, can achieve its goal of finding new glaucoma genes.

Other participating UI investigators are Todd Scheetz, Ph.D., in ophthalmology and visual sciences; Jian Huang, Ph.D., in statistics and actuarial science; and Kai Wang, Ph.D., in biostatistics. In addition, the project involves the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study and investigators at Washington University.

Glaucoma is the second leading cause of irreversible blindness in the United States and the leading cause among African-Americans.