Millions face vision loss each year, but at UMKC, Peter Koulen, Ph.D., is leading efforts to change that trajectory.

As the Felix and Carmen Sabates Missouri Endowed Chair in Vision Research, Koulen directs an interdisciplinary program focused on developing new therapies to prevent and slow diseases that damage nerve cells in the eye and brain. Koulen and his team have discovered self-defense mechanisms of nerve cells, and these discoveries could lead to breakthroughs in treating glaucoma, macular degeneration and other vision-threatening conditions.

Support from the endowed chair, grateful patients and community donors equips Koulen and the Vision Research Center with the resources to move discoveries from the lab toward real-world therapies.

“While my research programs are supported by the National Institutes of Health and several other funding agencies,” Koulen said, “we depend on philanthropic support to hire the best researchers in the field and to expand the research scope of our center to include the most impactful range of technologies, which will position us best to address the urgent needs of preventing and treating eye diseases.”

That funding also strengthens training for students and fosters collaboration across UMKC schools and Kansas City medical centers to unite basic science and clinical expertise.