The money, which will provide for two endowed professorships and research teams, allows scientists to focus research on the retina.

While it's possible to clear vision clouded by cataracts and correct vision with lasers, there still are few treatments or cures for the diseases most likely to cause blindness.

Vision problems like macular degeneration, glaucoma and retinosis pigmentosa often cannot be helped by drugs or surgery.

Half of the new vision project will be funded with state lottery proceeds designated for the South Carolina Research Centers of Economic Excellence Act.

Storm Eye and USC must raise the remaining $4.5 million privately over the next five years.

Nearly $3 million has been committed, including $500,000 put up by the South Carolina Lion's Club, said Toni McHugh, director of development for the Storm Eye Institute.

"The goal is to find a cure for these blinding diseases," said Dr. Craig Crosson, an MUSC professor of ophthalmology who serves as director of research at the Storm Eye Institute, which is now ranked 10th in the nation for National Institutes of Health-funded vision research.

The universities plan to recruit top scientists for positions focusing on retina research and bioengineering as it relates to vision correction.

The research is important because little is known about how retinal diseases function, unlike more treatable eye problems such as cataracts.

"We're still trying to understand the molecular basis of why these diseases occur, and why it often takes 50 years for them to develop," Crosson said. "It's much harder to study something that develops that slowly."

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Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.charleston.net