omlog: a blog by Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, India!

Meeting with Dr. Claybourne Stephens (Motif Biosciences, USA)

       

Joel Clayborne Stephens, Ph.D., SVP and Chief Scientific Officer of Motif Biosciences, USA visited Sankara Nethralaya on 14-11-2007.  He had discussions about possible collaboration with Vision Research Foundation on mapping disease genes for ophthalmic diseases. Motif Biosciences Inc. is a population genetics company seeking to identify the genetic causes of major diseases by working with a unique, rich, and defensible source of human genetic data from populations throughout the world. Previously, Mr. Stephens was Vice President of Genetics and Executive Director of Population Genomics at Genaissance Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: GNSC) in New Haven, CT. Prior to that, Clay had served as a Principal Investigator, Head of Bioinformatics Group, and a Senior Staff Fellow at the National Institute of Health, NCI, DBS Laboratory of Genomic Diversity.

Glaucoma awareness programme & free glass distribution at Kandoor village

Sankara Nethralaya Glaucoma project is a population-based study designed with a view to identify families with strong family history of Glaucoma & correspondingly screen the gene causing Glaucoma. This will help in understanding the pathology of the disease. To know more about this project visit http://www.sankaranethralaya.org/re_glaucoma.htm. As a part of this project, Glaucoma awareness programme & free glass distribution was conducted at Kandoor village on 25^th October 2007.

This was organized by Mr. V Madhanraj. Dr L Vijaya, Director-Glaucoma & Dr Ronnie George, consultant, presided over the function. Over 300 people from this village participated & benefited from this programme. 75 prescription glasses were distributed free of cost.

             

The local leaders and others of the village expressed their heart felt gratitude to Sankara Nethralaya for its great help. They thanked Sankara Nethralaya for its commitment and concern towards the society.

Cricket Star Visited Sankara Nethralaya

Krishnamachari Srikanth, former captain of Indian Cricket Team & the most stylish opening batsman known for his swashbuckling strokes with power & precision visited Sankara Nethralaya for a regular eye check up. He had a chat with a few employees & he also met Our Chairman Emeritus Dr S S Badrinath.

3rd Workshop on ARMD Management.

A CME on AGE RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION was held on 14th October 2007 in collaboration with Novartis Opththalmics. This worshop was aimed at training the general Ophthalmologist in identifying ARMD. About 75 Ophthalmologist from  Indore, Bangalore, Bombay, Trichy & various other parts of TamilNadu attended this workshop. Lectures were delivered on various aspects of ARMD. This was followed by  interactive discussions, clinical case presentations & Quiz.

Inauguration of mobile Tele-Ophthalmology unit in Vidarbha

Sankara Nethralaya has been the pioneer in providing eye care to rural areas through its mobile Tele-Ophthalmology units since 2003. currently four mobile units are operating covering almost 10 districts in Tamil Nadu & 6 districts in Karnataka. The total population benefitted by these units is approx 1,55,757.

As an extension of this program, a mobile unit covering 4 districts of Vidarbha, Maharashtra was inaugurated in Yavatmal by Prof M S Swaminathan, Chairman MS Swaminathan Research Foundation on October 7, 2007 to serve the rural population of Vidarbha.

This unit will work in co-ordination with the central hub at the main hospital, chennai. vision screening will be initially done by a social worker. The patients who require consultation will be diagnosed & prescribed accordingly through video conferencing. counseling & awareness meeting's will also be conducted periodically at the camp sites.

Site for New Ten Storied Building

The remains of the nearly hundred year old building at the main campus of Sankara Nethralaya is being cleared and the site is being prepared for the New Ten Storied Building which will house the Research Complex that will satisfy the growing demands in ophthalmic infrastructure in this part of the world. Please help us raise funds for putting up this building which will in turn help our research scholars find more ways to combat blindness.