Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (Westchester/Rockland), the Ranking Member on the House Appropriations Committee, today announced a grant totaling $425,000 from the National Eye Institute (NEI), one of the National Institutes for Health (NIH), for the Burke Medical Research Institute to study vascular control in diabetic retinopathy.
"It gives me great pride to fight in Congress for medical research dollars that support good jobs and enable groundbreaking and innovative medical research right here in the Lower Hudson Valley, " said Lowey. "Burke Medical Research Institute is one of many outstanding local facilities whose impressive research is advancing the health of all Americans. Funding for NIH has nearly tripled since I joined the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds medical research, and I will continue working to increase the $2 billion the NIH pumps into New York's economy each year."
Burke Medical Research Institute officials said that every 23 seconds someone is diagnosed with diabetes, diabetes knows no borders and affects adults and children, and complications of diabetes kill more people than HIV and breast cancer combined. One of the early and most visible manifestations of this disease is vision impairment, called diabetic retinopathy, which can cause eventual blindness. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, nearly half of patients diagnosed with diabetes -- both type 1 and type 2 -- suffer from diabetic retinopathy, even if they are not aware of it.
Altered retinal blood flow is a common characteristic of patients with early stages of diabetic retinopathy, and likely contributes to later complications of the disease. A recent study funded by the NIH and the NEI, carried out by a group of scientists at the Burke Medical Research Institute in White Plains, is aimed at dissecting the mechanisms that cause impaired blood flow control in diabetic eye. This study, led by Dr. Botir Sagdullaev, will continue to explore whether these interactions can be targeted to prevent and treat vision loss during diabetes.
NEI supports vision research through approximately 1600 research grants and training awards to scientists at more than 250 medical centers, universities, and other institutions across the country and around the world. NEI-funded research has established many treatments for diabetic retinopathy.
Lowey fought to include a $2 billion increase in NIH funding in the December 2015 year-end omnibus government spending bill.