The goal of Dr. Owen’s work is to advance our ability to treat pediatric eye conditions, including retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), strabismus, and amblyopia, and enable disease prevention, which does not currently exist.
She and her team work with multi-disciplinary colleagues nationally and internationally to achieve these goals. In this way, they are able to discover the complex causes for childhood eye disease, including genetic, molecular, environmental, and even in utero determinants through her study of the placenta.
Their work has led to important discoveries that change the way we care for patients and reduce blindness in children. As an example, Dr. Owen’s research to understand why some preterm infants are at greater risk for developing blindness from ROP has led to a partnership with industry leaders to translate her lab’s findings to new prevention therapies, which may not simply minimize blindness but prevent it altogether.