A full understanding of retinal cell types and their functions could point to novel therapeutic targets for diseases that affect the visual system, such as glaucoma — a leading cause of blindness for people over age 60.

The funds will help launch a clinical trial in the U.S. with one of the therapies and compare it with another therapy from an ongoing clinical trial in Japan.

Roughly 1 in 10 people over age 70 will develop CHIP, an explosive, clonal growth of abnormal blood cells that increases risk of blood cancers and death from cardiovascular, lung and liver disease.

People whose white blood cell levels are near the edge of the “healthy” reference range will hit a clinical decision point that has consequences such as diagnostic procedures and altered treatments.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System have demonstrated in a small clinical study that “turning up the heat” on fat may help people lose weight and reduce their risk of obesity-related cardiovascular and metabolic disease.

The findings reported in the journal Immunity support the development of a monoclonal antibody for prevention and treatment of influenza B — and will help guide efforts to develop a universal influenza vaccine.

Tkaczyk and collaborators will assemble a database of more than 11,000 photographs and associated clinical information from diverse patient populations at five centers: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic, NIH, University of Pennsylvania and VUMC.