BrightFocus Foundation and Helen Keller Foundation Award University of Iowa Researchers 2025 Prize for Pioneering Eye Research

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (May 7, 2025)—Global brain and vision research nonprofit BrightFocus Foundation and the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education have named the University of Iowa’s Val C. Sheffield, MD, PhD, and Edwin M. Stone, MD, PhD, the recipients of the 2025 Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research in recognition of their immense contributions to advancing vision research.

The awards were presented May 6 during a dinner and ceremony at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). Keller Johnson-Thompson, great-grand niece of Helen Keller, awarded the prizes to Drs. Sheffield and Stone.

Dr. Val Sheffield, professor of pediatrics and ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, is best known for developing methods and improved approaches to facilitate human genetic disease gene identification. This work includes major contributions to the completion of a high-resolution polymorphic genetic map of the human genome (the first completed goal of the Human Genome Project). Dr. Sheffield has advanced understanding of hereditary blindness and other vision-affecting disorders like diabetes and hypertension by identifying numerous genes linked to inherited blindness—including glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, and Bardet-Biedl Syndrome. Currently, his lab is focused on development of novel therapies.

Dr. Edwin Stone is a professor of ophthalmology and director of the University of Iowa Institute for Vision Research. He is best known for his work in defining the genetic basis of blinding eye diseases—ranging from two of the most common causes of blindness, macular degeneration and glaucoma, to rarer conditions like retinitis pigmentosa and Leber congenital amaurosis. Dr. Stone has actively worked to remove the technical, legal, and financial barriers between genetic discoveries and the patients who could benefit from them. He founded the Carver Nonprofit Genetic Testing Laboratory at the University of Iowa that provides low-cost genetic tests to patients in every state of the U.S. and more than 60 other countries. He also created an open-access web-based teaching tool with thousands of downloadable full-resolution images to help physicians around the world improve their ability to diagnose Mendelian retinal diseases (www.stonerounds.org). His current research interests include the development of affordable gene-and stem cell-based treatments for all molecular forms of inherited retinal disease and the identification of new disease-causing and phenotype modifying genetic variations.

Established in 1994, the Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research recognizes excellence as demonstrated by several significant professional research contributions to vision science or for a single research contribution of exceptional importance to vision science and is chosen by an international panel of biomedical physicians and researchers. Past recipients include pioneers whose work has fundamentally advanced the field.

“This year’s Helen Keller Prize honors research that has fundamentally changed how we understand the genetic roots of blinding eye diseases,” said Stacy Pagos Haller, President and CEO of BrightFocus Foundation. “We are proud to recognize Dr. Edwin Stone and Dr. Val Sheffield, two groundbreaking researchers whose work offers real hope to millions of people at risk of losing their sight.”

“Dr. Edwin Stone and Dr. Val Sheffield, working at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, have long been leaders in the emerging field of genetic medicine. In so doing they have discovered the basis for many inherited diseases that lead to loss of sight. These discoveries will underpin new eye disease treatments for decades to come,” said Robert Morris, MD, President of The Helen Keller Eye Research Foundation.

About BrightFocus Foundation 

BrightFocus Foundation is a premier global nonprofit funder of research to discover cures for diseases of mind and sight. Through its programs Alzheimer’s Disease Research, Macular Degeneration Research, and National Glaucoma Research, the Foundation has awarded more than $300 million in innovative research grants, laying the groundwork for new treatments, risk factors, and prevention strategies. The Foundation also serves as a trusted source of information for those affected by these diseases. Learn more at brightfocus.org.

About Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education

Based on the legacy of Helen Keller, the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education strives to prevent blindness and deafness by advancing research and education. The Foundation aspires to be a leader in integrating sight, speech, and hearing research with the greater biomedical research community, creating and coordinating a peer-reviewed, worldwide network of investigators and institutions.

Media Contacts

Julia Roth
BrightFocus Foundation
jroth@brightfocus.org

Laura Beckwith
Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education
(205) 933-9389
lbeckwith@helenkellerfoundation.org