Every year, the US-based organization Lighthouse Guild awards a distinguished scholar with the Bressler Prize for Outstanding Accomplishments in Vision Science Research. The elite club of leading world retinal scientists has been now joined by this year’s laureate from Bulgaria – Prof. Vladimir Kefalov.

At a ceremony in New York in November, Prof. Vladimir Kefalov will receive $ 54,000, bequeathed by the philanthropist Alfred Bressler. He will walk on the red carpet because he is considered to be one of the world's leading retinal researchers whose work has generated new insights into the mechanisms of multiple human vision disorders, the official announcement says. Thus, the scholar becomes yet another Bulgarian to receive world recognition but remaining little known in his homeland.

Since 2005, Prof. Vladimir Kefalov has been the head of his own lab at Washington University in St. Louis. He left Bulgaria in 1993 because at that time there were no good conditions for scientific research in the country. He initially settled in Boston where he earned a PhD in cellular biophysics, then specialized at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

“My lab is involved in examining the vision cells in the retina - these are nerve cells that swallow light and are activated so that the process of vision can start”, Prof. Vladimir Kefalov explains. “We try to understand how they work and why they do not function normally in eye disorders and blindness. We also try to find a way via pharmaceutical agents or other treatments to make these cells capable of responding again to light.”

When we enter the dark cinema hall, at first we cannot see anything but if we look around in about half an hour, we'll realize that we can see pretty well. The reason for this is that the cells have adapted to the dark. But in some diseases such as macular degeneration or with aging, this process is increasingly slowing down, explains the scientist whose team has for years been studying the mechanisms of adaptation of the eye cells to light and darkness.

“One of our most interesting research projects is based on gene therapy”, Prof. Vladimir Kefalov continues. “With mice, we compromised the process of adapting to darkness, similar to what happens in the human retina. Then we developed а gene therapy and we succeeded, by using a virus, in replacing the defective gene with another functioning gene. In this way, we restored the functioning of the vision cells and the mice started to see again. This result is very important to us because it shows that there is a way for such studies to lead to the improvement of eye disorders also in humans.”

The Bulgarian scholar explains that in the treatment of blindness there are already promising new therapies, successful clinical trials with patients, or in other words, there is light in the tunnel.

“The technologies are developing incredibly fast - especially in the biological sciences as well as in areas like gene therapy and stem cells,” Prof.Kefalov adds. “These are all developments that were unthinkable fifteen years ago, and today the use of genetic manipulation is getting faster and easier with advancing technology. One approach is to insert electronic chips - they replace the retina when it does not function normally, and with their help patients recover at least some basic vision. In my opinion, however, this is not the best option, as the chips will never be as sensitive and perfect as the human retina. The solution is in some way to prevent the loss of retinal function or to regenerate It though biological means. So now our field is developing very dynamically, and I hope that we will make tremendous progress within the next 5-10 years.”

Though he has chosen a road full of difficulties and tremendous efforts, Prof. Vladimir Kefalov wakes up every morning with the thought of how happy he is to be able to do what he dreamed of. “Success requires a lot of work here, but the good thing is that it does not depend on others, but only on you”, he concludes.

English: Rossitsa Petcova