Ian A. Sigal, Ph.D. from Laboratory of Ocular Biomechanics University of Pittsburgh, USA will held a guest lecture "Computational modeling techniques applied to the study of the eye" at Institute of Structural Mechanics.

overview:
Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Loss of vision in glaucoma is due to the deterioration of retinal ganglion cell axons, which carry visual information from the eye to the brain. It is generally believed that axonal degeneration initiates in the posterior pole of the eye, more specifically within the optic ner- ve head (ONH). The main risk factor, and only proven method of preventing the onset of glau- coma, is an elevated pressure of the fluid in- side the eye (the intraocular pressure, or IOP). However, how an elevated IOP leads to glauco- matous vision loss or why there is such a wide
range of sensitivities to IOP remains unknown. The goal of our research is to understand how the characteristics of an individual eye determi- ne its sensitivity to IOP and risk of vision loss.

Gastvortag_Sigal_2012.pdf