Research at Berkeley Optometry

Faculty Research

In addition to offering comprehensive clinical training, our world-class faculty are committed to cutting-edge research in vision science.

Research in Primary Care Optometry (PCO) includes investigations in areas such as binocular disorders, low vision, ocular disease, geriatrics, pediatrics, and the effects of contact lens wear.

Basic research in Vision Science focuses on such disciplines as bioengineering, psychophysics, neurophysiology, visual neuroscience, molecular and cell biology, cell membrane biochemistry, biostatistics, robotics, contact lenses, spatial navigation, ocular infections, refractive development, corneal surface mapping, infant vision, computational vision, and 3D computer modeling.

Funding of research at Berkeley Optometry continues to grow. In 2011 support totaled approximately $50 million, with $33.5 million awarded by the National Eye Institute (National Institutes of Health).

Home Department for the Vision Science Group

Optometry also hosts the multi-disciplinary, inter-departmental Vision Science Graduate Program. Vision Research at UC Berkeley offers a range of opportunities in Vision Science where students earn MS or PhD degrees while conducting research in areas such as biology, neuroscience, physics, optics, bio-engineering, chemistry, psychology, epidemiology, and optometry. In 2011 total research funding for the Berkeley Vision Science Group approximated $106 million. Also see the Vision Science Graduate Program.

Research (Optometry & Vision Science)

• Adams, A. Vision in diabetes, color vision, visual sensitivity, myopia, assessment of retinal function
• Bailey, I. Low vision, clinical optics, clinical assessment of visual performance
• Banks, M. Binocular vision, motion perception, space perception, infant vision
• Chen, L. Corneal inflammation, lymph/blood vascular biology, immunology, transplantation
• Chung, Susana. Pattern vision; Visual impairment; Low vision rehabilitation
• Cuadros, J. Remote clinical diagnosis and distance learning, validation of new retinal imaging devices for detection of diabetic retinopathy
• Enoch, J. Retinal receptor optics and function, quantitative layer-by-layer perimetry, visual correction of infants
• Flannery, J. Gene therapy, inherited retinal degeneration, neurobiology of photoreceptors, signal transducing intermediates in the visual system
• Fleiszig, S. Infectious keratitis in contact lens wearers, pathogenesis of bacterial infection in cornea
• Freeman, R. Neurophysiological investigations of circuitry in central visual pathways
• Gong, X. Molecular mechanisms for eye development and disease
• Gronert, K. Ocular inflammation/immunology and wound healing
• Haegerstrom-Portnoy, G. Clinical pyschophysics and basic aspects of human color vision, changes in visionwith age, achromatopsia, electrodiagnostics
• Klein, S. Spatial vision modeling, psychophysical methods and vision test design, corneal topography and contact lens design, source localization of evoked potentials, fMRI, amblyopia
• Levi, D. Mechanisms of pattern vision, and the influence of abnormal visual development on those mechanisms
• Lin, M. Effects of ethnicity on contact lens wear; tear mixing; epithelial barrier function; ocular surface and contact lens wear; tear film and contact lens wear; safety and efficacy of corneal refractive therapy (CRT); and epidemiological studies on the outcomes of refractive surgery
• Liu, M. Optical control of myopia progression
• Mandell, R. Corneal topography, measurement, and applications
• Olshausen, B. Probabalistic models of image representation in visual cortex
• Orel-Bixler, D. Assessment of visual abilities in infants, children and special-needs population; visual evoked potentials; vision screening; and photorefraction
• Polse, K. Contact lenses, extended wear, tear flow, post-lens tear thickness, epithelial permeability (barrier function), corneal acidosis, corneal physiology, ocular disease processes
• Roorda, A. High-resolution retinal imaging, adaptive optics, physiological optics, limits of human vision
• Schor, C. Binocular vision: human development, ocular motility, strabismus, amblyopia
• Silver, M. Neural correlates of human visual perception and attention
• Verdon, W. Clinical electrophysiology (ERG, EOG, VEP) of normal vision, and of inherited and acquired retinal disease; mechanisms of color vision in normal and color defective eyes; development of new techniques of clinical electrophysiology
• Wildsoet, C. Emmetropization, retinal processing of defocus, choroidal accommodation, retina-choroid-sclera signal pathway, ocular rhythms, pharmacological modulation of eye growth, blur detection, anisometropia, refractive development in albinos

University of California, Berkeley Clinical Research Center

• The UCB Clinical Research Center (CRC) conducts patient-based, interdisciplinary research in partnership with private and public institutions, involving clinical teams investigating and developing strategies for (1) diagnosis, prevention, and treatments of visual and health anomalies; and (2) evaluating the efficacy, feasibility, and safety of health-care products related to contact lenses, pharmaceuticals, vision therapy and rehabilitation, and computer vision.

NEI Summer Research Program (OD Students)

• The NEI Summer Research Training Program is intended to introduce research to currently enrolled optometry students, as well as to opportunities for research as a career goal.

Graduating with Honors (OD Students)

• The School of Optometry offers students the opportunity to graduate with honors, a distinction awarded to students who successfully complete a research dissertation ("Graduation with Honors in Research") or a scholarly case report ("Graduation with Honors in Clinical Science") that meets high academic standards. See Graduating with Honors.