Essilor has signed an agreement with Johnson & Johnson Vision Care to acquire The Spectacle Lens Group. The transaction is expected to close this summer. Essilor says it will continue to manufacture and distribute The Spectacle Lens Groups Definity progressive lenses in the United States. Essilor also has acquired the industrial and marketing assets of National Optronics, a manufacturer of precision edging systems primarily for prescription laboratories. National Optronics expects to keep its current management team in place and continue its North American business as usual.

Endophthalmitis is a fearsome complication of cataract surgery, but actual incidence of acute-onset endophthalmitis after temporal clear corneal incision phacoemulsification is low: 0.05%, according to a four-year analysis of nearly 16,000 patients at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami.

Gene therapy researchers have been stymied in their efforts to effectively deliver corrective DNA into bad genes. Nanoparticles might be the answer. Researchers presenting at the American Society of Gene Therapy Meeting found that DNA nanoparticles were 10 times more efficient than any other gene transfer system for introducing DNA into the cells of the retina.