Foundation Fighting Blindness
Eye Donor Program Histopathology Facility
Cole Eye Institute
Joe G. Hollyfield, Ph.D.
Program Director
Click here for an Excel file listing of available tissue samples
The Foundation Fighting Blindness Eye Donor Program and Histopathology Facility is located in the Cole Eye Institute. The goal of this program is to secure, study and make available to others eye tissue from individuals with degenerative retinal diseases. Included in this collection are donor tissues from individuals with early onset disorders, like Leber’s congenital amaurosis and retinitis pigmentosa as well as those with late onset disease, like age-related macular degeneration. Although the program has been in existence for over 25 years, it has been housed at the Cleveland Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute only since 2001. This program is led by Joe G. Hollyfield, Ph.D., who was instrumental in organizing this program in the early 1980s. Dr. Hollyfield is assisted in the day-to-day operation by Vera L. Bonilha, Ph.D.
In the lifetime of this collection over 100 research papers have been published from analysis of tissues in this collection. The collection it is unique in the world and it is likely that no other collection of diseased tissues with genetic defects exists for any other organ system. Certainly no other collection exists with this magnitude and breadth. This unique resource, continuously available for additional study, is a repository for new donations and available for distribution to interested laboratories worldwide.
Since this collection was relocated to the Cole Eye Institute it has continued to be upgraded and substantial new research has been conducted using both new donations that come to this facility as well as tissues that have been a part of the collection for many years.
In addition to the extensive work performed within the host laboratory over the last six years, (22 research publications have appeared and 28 poster presentations of studies on FFB donor tissues made at national/international meetings. A substantial number of tissue distributions have been made to other laboratories that are pursuing research important to the goals of the Foundation Fighting Blindness. These include tissues from 60 donor eyes that have been distributed for analysis to 17 different investigators in the United States and abroad.
As new technologies develop, the FFB Histopathology Facility is poised to provide valuable tissues to investigators that would require decades to secure. Indeed, for many research approaches, the tissues in the facility can be used indefinitely.
Investigators interested in using tissues from this collection should contact Joe G. Hollyfield: hollyfj@ccf.org, or the Foundation Fighting Blindness.
