Partnership Focuses on Vision Excellence

Even people with 20-20 eyesight may eventually see better, thanks to the pioneering work of a Rochester research team.

Using technology originally designed to help astronomers get better pictures of the stars, David Williams, director of the Center for Visual Science, has developed an optical system that, in tests, has improved the eyesight of research subjects.

Williams pictures a day when the technology, known as "adaptive optics," may increase visual acuity by as much as 50 percent for many people.

"It's like needing glasses and getting them for the first time," Williams says. "Everything suddenly looks sharper and clearer, no matter how good your eyes
are normally. When you're using the adaptive optics system, you just say 'Wow!'"

Although still in development, the technology has been licensed by the eye-care company Bausch & Lomb, which is helping the University to license it.

The Rochester company and University vision scientists have a longstanding working relationship, thanks, in large part, to Williams's research program.

That partnership was formalized this spring when Bausch & Lomb and the University teamed up to create a clinical and academic research program to improve vision.

Funded by a $3 million grant from the company, the Alliance for Vision Excellence combines the expertise of Bausch & Lomb with the University's Center for Visual Science and the Department of Ophthalmology.

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