Cellular-level Eye Signals to Track Vascular Health
Official title: Cellular-level Vascular Oculomics (CVO) for monitoring systemic vascular health
Funded at Cleveland Clinic Lerner Com-Cwru · NIH-11596396 · Data updated 2026-11-12
A multi-site project aims to create and test portable imaging devices and AI tools that can monitor blood vessel health through the eye.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Cleveland Clinic Lerner Com-Cwru NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Cleveland, United States) |
| Project start | August 1, 2026 |
| Project end | September 13, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2024 |
| Award (this year) | $451,660 |
| NIH project number | 7OT2OD038128-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11596396 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults who have or are at risk for vascular or eye-related conditions and who can visit the participating sites.
✕Less likely to help
Healthy individuals without vascular or ocular concerns may not directly benefit from this research.
What this research studies
This project plans to design four smart imaging devices, deploy them at four major clinical sites, and develop real-time software to correct image distortion. Teams will train AI-based biomarkers using existing data to enable real-time annotation of vascular health signals from eye images. Over three years, the effort focuses on imaging both healthy and diseased subjects to build a normative database and compare datasets across sites.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, patients could get a noninvasive way to monitor systemic blood vessel health through eye imaging.
How similar studies have gone: Previous imaging and AI biomarker work suggest potential benefits, but this project aims to integrate hardware, software, and data across multiple sites.
Where this research is happening
-
Cleveland Clinic Lerner Com-Cwru
Cleveland, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Fawzi, Amani a — Cleveland Clinic Lerner Com-Cwru
- Study coordinator: Fawzi, Amani a
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.