Ultra-detailed eye blood vessel imaging to track whole-body vascular health
Cellular-level Vascular Oculomics (CVO) for monitoring systemic vascular health
This project uses ultra-high-resolution retinal imaging and AI to look for tiny blood vessel changes that might signal Alzheimer's or other vascular problems in adults.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Northwestern University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Chicago, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11376975 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers are building four advanced eye-imaging devices and sharing them across four medical centers while developing software to correct and stabilize images in real time. Teams will pool existing image datasets and train AI to automatically label cellular-level blood vessel features. Over time they will collect images from healthy volunteers and people with vascular or Alzheimer's-related conditions to create normal comparison data and find possible biomarkers. If you join, you would get a non-invasive eye scan at a participating site and your images could help improve detection methods for vascular and brain health.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Adults who can travel to one of the participating U.S. sites (Stanford, Indiana, Northwestern, Mount Sinai), including healthy volunteers and people with Alzheimer's or vascular conditions, are ideal candidates.
Not a fit: People who cannot travel to the participating sites, have eye conditions that prevent clear imaging, or need immediate clinical treatment are unlikely to benefit directly from participation.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could enable earlier, non-invasive detection of vascular changes linked to Alzheimer's and other systemic diseases using routine eye scans.
How similar studies have performed: Previous smaller studies have suggested retinal vascular imaging and AI can pick up signals related to Alzheimer's, but this high-resolution, multi-site hardware and software effort is a novel and experimental approach.
Where this research is happening
Chicago, United States
- Northwestern University — Chicago, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Fawzi, Amani a — Northwestern University
- 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 below.