Exploring alternatives to fight serious corneal infections

A pair of Wayne State University School of Medicine researchers has secured a National Institutes of Health grant to determine whether a protein naturally produced by humans is more effective in combating a blinding corneal infection than current steroid treatments. Elizabeth Berger, Ph.D., assistant professor of Ophthalmology, Visual and Anatomical Sciences, will serve as the principal investigator, and Gabriel Sosne, M.D., associate professor of Ophthalmology, Visual and Anatomical Sciences, co-investigator, will apply the $386,000 R01 grant from the National Eye Institute in their study, “Thymosin beta-4 as an Adjunct Treatment for Bacterial Keratitis.”