Research

Graduate Center for Vision Research

SUNY Optometry has nationally and internationally recognized faculty engaged in cutting-edge research in eye and vision science. The College is committed to expanding its research efforts and, as such, continues to search for new outstanding vision scientists to bring on board.

Research at the college is organized under the Graduate Center for Vision Research (GCVR). The GCVR oversees all programs supporting basic, translational, and clinical research on the eye and vision at the college, including the college’s graduate programs for PhD and MS students as well as OD-MS and OD-PhD joint degree programs.

Current research investigations can be classified into the following areas

Cell Biology and Ocular Pharmacology
This group studies the functioning of various components of the eye, using primarily cell and molecular biology approaches.  Research interests of this group include: cornea and cell signaling pathways, gap junctions and the interactions of tear proteins and the cornea.

Visual Optics
This group studies accommodation; wavefront aberrations of the eye; pupil dynamics; optics and composite prismatic; binocular vision; optical visual control of eye growth and emmetropization; and development of refractive errors.

Visual Neurophysiology
This group studies the neural basis of visual function using electrophysiological and computational methods.  Research interests include color processing by retinal and cortical neurons, evolution of color vision, 3-D shape extraction by cortical neurons, neural connectivity, cortical feedback of LGN, effective state of neural responses, neural effects of glaucoma, control of eye-movements, etc.

Vision and Visual Perception
This group focuses on functional aspects in human vision ranging from low-level detection to high-level perception. Research interests include color vision, visual adaptation, spatio-temporal vision, space perception, 3-shape perception, visual learning, visual rehabilitation, reading, eye movements, visual deficits due to glaucoma and diabetes, etc.

Clinical Research
Clinician scientists and researchers at the college conduct research studies with our patient population at the University Eye Center. Areas of research studies include vision rehabilitation, binocular vision, imaging, disease, contact lenses, presbyopia, myopia, amblyopia, traumatic brain injury.

Research at the College is funded by a variety of sources including the NIH, NSF, Department of Defense, the Schnurmacher Institute for Vision Research, and industry.