Category Archives: Smallgrants

Small Grants Award Scheme for Birdshot Research

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We are delighted to announce that this year we have three awards available under the jointly funded small research projects scheme which Fight for Sight run.

Details about these awards are below:

Awards under this scheme are designed to provide support for birdshot clinical research studies only. The studies are to be conducted into any of the charity’s six research priority areas as detailed in the Charity’s Research Strategy 2012-2017. In addition the charity is keen to address the priorities identified by the Sight Loss and Vision Priority Setting Partnership

Fight for Sight is an NIHR Partner Organisation which means that clinical studies we fund are eligible for inclusion in the NIHR Clinical Research Network Portfolio. This allows the study team to have access to clinical infrastructure/NHS Service Support through the NIHR Clinical Research Networks.

Fight for Sight operates a Peer Review system that the charity believes enables an equitable and efficient way to review grant applications. Fight for Sight is unable to provide feedback for the Small Grant Awards Schemes.

Eligibility

  • Applicant must be affiliated with a UK academic or medical institutions.
  • Applicants must have a contract which extends beyond the termination date of the award.
  • These awards are limited to clinical research projects in the field of ophthalmology and vision science. Clinical research is research that either directly involves human participants or uses materials from patients (including human samples and human data).
  • These awards must not involve the use of animals or animal derived cell lines / samples.

Financial support and duration

  • Awards for up to £15,000.
  • Includes the costs of
    • employment (except Applicants; clinical applicants are expected to have protected research time in their NHS contracts);
    • consumables; and
    • equipment essential for the project.
  • Excludes indirect costs and any other non-attributable overhead costs.
  • These awards are tenable for up to 12 months.
  • These awards are not to be used to top-up existing grants.

Deadline

The call for “Small Grant Awards” is now open. The closing date for application submissions is 5pm on Wednesday 23 August 2017.

Application must be submitted via our online system grants.fightforsight.org.uk
Late applications will not be considered.

Better options for treating Birdshot

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New research funding partnership between Fight for Sight and Birdshot Uveitis Society

Birdshot uveitis is a rare autoimmune disorder that has the potential to blind. It’s notoriously hard to treat. The UK’s main eye research charity Fight for Sight is partnering with Birdshot Uveitis Society to try to change that with new grants to researchers in London and Birmingham, to fund pioneering research that could lead to better treatments.

In birdshot, which is strongly linked to the gene HLA-A29, the immune system attacks two critical structures at the back of the eye: the retina and the choroid. The retina contains the photoreceptor cells that detect light and send visual signals to the brain, while the choroid is a layer of blood vessels that supplies the retina with oxygen and nutrition. When this supply is interrupted as during an inflammatory immune response, the photoreceptors can’t function normally.

Current options for treatment are limited to steroids and drugs to suppress the immune system. However in the long term these can cause sight-threatening complications such as cataract and glaucoma. We need some better options.

Stem cells from patients

Dr Anai Gonzalez Cordero at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology is leading one of the two new studies. The team will study a layer of cells in the retina called the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in tissue developed from birdshot patient stem cells.

“Subtle changes to RPE can be seen in some patients during the early stages of birdshot. This is not an obvious feature of the condition but current examination methods are limited, identifying only severe dysfunction,” says Dr Gonzalez Cordero.

“We do know that RPE can modulate the choroid and that RPE cells show HLA-A29 gene activity. Almost everyone with birdshot has a particular variation of this gene. Post-mortem tissue from birdshot patients is both scarce and unsuitable for detailed analysis. However we can develop mature RPE in the lab from stem cells derived from blood of living patients. This will allow us to explore the role of RPE in detail as well as providing a much-needed test bed for future treatments that can also be used by other researchers in the field.”

Iron overload is treatable

Dr Graham Wallace at the University of Birmingham will lead the second study. Here the focus is on genetic control of iron levels in birdshot.

“Iron is essential in the retina for photoreceptor cell function and is generally controlled by iron-regulating proteins. However free iron is highly toxic for photoreceptors, leading to an increase in oxidative stress. Iron is also involved in inflammation as it is essential for the proliferation of immune cells,” says Dr Wallace.

“Given a recent association between HLA-A29 and HFE H63D – a gene implicated in patients with iron overload – we think this could be an important route to explore with regard to birdshot. Iron overload is treatable and so may give us other options.”

Dr Dolores Conroy is Fight for Sight’s Director of Research. She says: “Understanding the root causes of birdshot is ultimately what will lead us to targeted, effective treatments. The Sight Loss and Vision Priority Setting Partnership tells us that this is what’s important to patients and so we are delighted to partner with Birdshot Uveitis Society to see the priorities addressed.”

Annie Folkard, a founder of the Birdshot Uveitis Society, said: “We are excited to support this innovative research. Studies likes these give our members great hope that in the future, improvements will be made to the current toxic treatments. Maybe even a cure will be found.”