Low-dose atropine is commonly used for slowing the progression of myopia in children. As with most novel or repurposed drugs, the optimal dosing schedules are tested in healthy young adult participants. We are curious to know if children respond to atropine in the same way that young adults do. For example, are they more or less impacted by the pupil dilation, near blur, and biometric changes that have been observed in adult subjects?

We would love your help understanding this! We are recruiting children between the ages of 6-12 to participate in this study! Interested? Please reach out to yoomensah@berkeley.edu for more information!

Orthokeratology lenses are rigid contact lenses that are worn overnight. During sleep, the lenses cause temporary flattening of the central cornea and steepening of the mid-peripheral cornea. This effect lasts throughout most of the day.

A recent animal study found that exposure to myopic defocus (a blur signal in which images are in front of the retina) is more effective at reducing myopia progression when it is applied during the evening hours. This means that children who experience more regression may also experience a better myopia controlling effect from treatment.

We are currently exploring the variation in diurnal regression in experienced young adult orthokeratology lens users and may expand this to a pediatric population in the future.

Multifocal soft contact lenses are frequently used for myopai control. Only distance-center multifocal contact lenses have been tested in clinical trials, however, in our clinic, many children prefer using near-center multifocal contact lenses for improved visual functioning. We are currently conducting a retrospective non-inferiority study among our clinical patients in order to assess whether near-center lenses are as effective as distance-center lenses. View our 2022 ARVO abstract.

We are currently investigating the short-term effects of using two different contact lens designs on choroid thickness and accommodation.

It has been reported that Asian eyes respond better to the anti-myopia effects of low-dose atropine than caucasian eyes. One reason for this may be that Asian eyes contain more melanin than Caucasian eyes. Melanin can act as a reservoir for cholinergic drugs, such as atropine, allowing for more and more drug to build up over its time of use. 

We are investigating the short-term effects of using atropine in patients with different iris colors in order to understand how dosing schedules may need to be altered for the optimal effect for all ethnicites.

The effects of 1% atropine are known to start within 30 mins of drop application and last for 7-10 days! But how about very low doses of atropine, like those used for myopia control? In this study, we are observing the recovery from three very low doses of atropine in young adult subjects.

One of the most common questions that we are asked in clinic regarding the use of atropine is whether two drops of 0.01% atropine are equivalent to one drop of 0.02% atropine. We're looking at the short-term effects of these two different dosing strategies on young adult patients.

Preliminary studies have suggested that OrthoK lenses with varying OZDs might influence the anti-myopia efficacy of the treatment. This short-term self-controlled clinical trial investigates the potential dose-dependent relationship between key parameters in OrthoK designs and their impact on corneal topographical changes and their long-term implication on myopia retardation. 

ChT has been considered as one of the most promising surrogate markers for myopia-controlling efficacy. The study aims at quantifying the induced changes of ChT by dual-focus SCLs that are specifically designed for myopia control for better understanding of the reliability of ChT measurement and its role in future myopia trials . 

HOA and peripheral myopic defocus have been proposed as the primary drive of the anti-myopia efficacy for both MFSCL and OrthoK treatments. In this self-controlled crossover trial, we aim to compare and contrast the amount and types of HOA induced by MFSCL vs. OrthoK. 

In this comprehensive retrospective chart review, we aim to compare the clinical performance regarding the safety and efficacy of all anti-myopia treatments utilized in the Myopia Control Clinic at UC Berkeley Eye Center, with which the patient population is much broader than what is usually considered for clinical trials. 

A device called Eyerising, which generates high-intensity red light, has been offered to millions of myopic children in China as an anti-myopia treatment. However the evidence for its short- and long-term safety either on animal models or clinical studies have not be established. We aim to use chick model to investigate the dose-dependent response in its axial inhibiting effect as well as toxicity to ocular structures.