The Dean McGee Eye Institute (DMEI) is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the University of Oklahoma. The current 70,000 GSF DMEI building houses most of the research, academic and clinical programs of the university's Department of Ophthalmology. Prior to the mid-1990's, the DMEl Department of Ophthalmology research program was limited to clinical vision research. Since that time our fundamental and translational research programs have grown dramatically, by recruiting world-class vision scientists and reallocating 18,490 GSF to basic science laboratories. Today, we rank 8th in NIH funding to Ophthalmology Departments and our investigators hold 17 active NIH project awards. Our scientists have achieved NEI P30 and NCRR COBRE awards. Twelve investigator laboratories utilize DMEI facilities with foci in ocular immunology and molecular pathogenesis of ocular infectious disease, retinal biochemistry, and molecular biology. This dramatic expansion of our basic research enterprise has exhausted and overcrowded available laboratory space, and some investigators work in facilities borrowed from other departments. In 2002 we completed a program planning initiative for a second DMEI building to house additional research and clinical facilities. We have designed a new 63,000-GSF facility attached to the current building (which was constructed in 1975). 42% of this new facility is allocated for research, yielding over 26,000 GSF dedicated to science. This will allow decompression of current investigator laboratories plus space for the already-committed recruitment of 8 additional principal investigators. It will permit expansion of existing research programs and establishment of new multi-investigator programs in glaucoma and pharmacotherapeutics.
