Whitney Pesek wants to be a graphic designer. Today there’s no reason the 17-year-old high school senior can’t achieve her dream. Just a few years ago, however, the vision for Whitney’s future wasn’t nearly so bright.
Five years ago Whitney went to school one day and suddenly couldn’t see people in the hallways out of her right eye. Words on the page were missing when she tried to read in class. Alarmed, Whitney and her parents sought medical attention. Her physician diagnosed her with uveitis, a rare ocular inflammation that can lead to blindness. Her ophthalmologist quickly put her on a drug treatment to stabilize her eye.
In high school, however, Whitney’s left eye began to fail dramatically. This time her physician sent her to OHSU’s Casey Eye Institute, which boasts one of the nation’s largest and best teams of scientists and physicians focused on ocular inflammation.
At Casey, Whitney met Dr. Jim Rosenbaum, a uveitis expert who administered an intravenous therapy to suppress the immune system, halt the inflammation and restore vision. Within days, Whitney could see again. Within a week, she was back at her drawing board.
Whitney’s advanced therapy was the result of advanced research. And now more and better research is possible for Casey’s ocular experts. OHSU’s new biomedical research building will include two laboratories dedicated to advanced eye research, one specifically devoted to inflammatory eye diseases including uveitis. Scientists at these special centers will work to study the body’s immune response and the motion and interaction of immune system cells to uncover new treatments for eye disease. They will also study the genetics of ocular inflammation, working to identify genes associated with the condition so that it can be treated earlier and more effectively.
Thanks to the new research building, Casey’s experts can continue looking forward. Thanks to them, Whitney can too.
