Most of us know someone who has experienced blindness or visual impairment. And the number of people with age-related eye diseases such as macular degeneration is rising as our life expectancy increases. Dr. Albert discusses common vision problems in the context of known science and future treatment possibilities. His research focuses on ocular tumors, specifically melanoma and retinoblastoma. Dr. Albert’s work with retinoblastoma utilizes transgenic mouse models of the tumor to investigate the molecular biology of the disease and whether vitamin D analogs produce tumor regression in these animal models. He also studies melanoma in a transgenic mouse model. The UW Eye Research Institute is unique among vision research centers in its philosophy of bringing together scientists and scholars from widely different disciplines—ranging from engineering to art to biochemistry—to stimulate fresh collaborative approaches to curing blindness and preventing vision loss.