University of Wisconsin Vision Scientists Participate in Groundbreaking Efforts to Develop Treatment to Cure Blindness

Two vision researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are involved in groundbreaking research aimed at curing blindness through human eye transplantation. To date, there has never been a successful whole human eye transplant for the restoration of vision.  However, research teams across the country, including at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, are hopeful these efforts will pave the way for this procedure.

Nanoparticles subdue antibiotic-resistant bacteria’s defences while enhancing innate immunity

A method for overcoming antibiotic resistance uses multimodal nanoparticles that target bacterial defence mechanisms while enhancing the innate immune response. The rise in antibiotic resistance is considered a slow-moving medical catastrophe, as these revolutionary drugs that have kept us relatively safe from bacterial infection for decades are losing their efficacy. In part due to their co-evolution, bacterial pathogens have developed mechanisms to resist almost every antibiotic on the market and we are in desperate need for new, innovative approaches. Writing in Nature Nanotechnology, Zhu et al. present a nanoparticle-based possibility, in which they target bacterial defence mechanisms while simultaneously enhancing the ability of the host immune cells to fight infection.