New book with an angle on how patients can profit from inflammatory eye disease research

Cooperation between specialists is clearly crucial for gaining excellent results in the laboratory, and without these, there is no foundation for meaningful change in patient care. However, a deep and connected understanding of all the entities involved and the ability to communicate this understanding are also crucial in the process of translating research results into improvements in the treatment of patients in clinical settings.

In the research unit FOR 2240, principle investigators from Project 1 “Induction of transplant tolerance by antihem- and antilymphangiogenic therapies” and Project 8 “The role of interleukin (IL)-10 in the pathogenesis of autoimmune uveitis in mice and man” have written a new book together in which major elements of the topic “Inflammatory Eye Diseases” are clearly explained, and which also shows how advances in research involving these diseases translates into improvement of patient care.

The authors, Claus Cursiefen (Principle Investigator, P1) and Arnd Heiligenhaus (Principle Investigator, P8), are both intensely devoted to translational aims in their careers. Prof. Heiligenhaus is the Head of the Dept. of Ophthalmology at St. Franziskus Hospital in Muenster, Germany, and Prof. Cursiefen is the Chairman of the Dept. of Ophthalmology and University Eye Hospital in Cologne, Germany.

The book, with the German title “Entzündliche Augenerkrankungen” (Inflammatory Eye Diseases), is scheduled to appear on 25 May 2016. It will be published in the Series “Schlaglicht Augenheilkunde” (Spotlight Ophthalmology), edited by Gerhard K. Lang and Gabriele E. Lang, by Thieme in Stuttgart, Germany.

One example with a translational angle that Prof. Cursiefen and Prof. Heiligenhaus put forward is the immunomodulatory therapy needed to prevent graft rejections after two different kinds of corneal transplants (full-thickness and lamellar). This a major clinical focus of the Eye Clinic at the University of Cologne and also of the FOR 2240. This complements the general aim of providing a view of the state-of-the-art in the diagnosis and therapy of inflammatory diseases of the eye, which are the clinical foci of Prof. Heiligenhaus’s department in Muenster.