PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release 7/20/04

For more information Contact:
Tiffany Esterline, Public Relations
800-753-2265 x. 230

Heartland Lions Eye Banks Named NDRI Substation

Columbia, Mo. (July 20, 2004) – Effective July 1, 2004 the Heartland Lions Eye Banks (HLEB) became a substation of the National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI). The eye bank’s new status as a remote site for NDRI will allow it to strengthen ties with the ocular research community and provide tissue for study into a variety of blinding eye diseases like glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

The two organizations have worked together for the last several years to provide tissue for ocular research, making HLEB one of the top providers of eye tissue to NDRI. For HLEB, gaining NDRI remote site status is an honor and a reflection of a longstanding partnership.

NDRI is a not-for-profit organization that acts as a middleman between organ, tissue and eye banks and medical researchers. The organization is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is the nation’s leader in providing tissue and organs to NIH-funded and university-based research projects.

HLEB is a program of the Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation (MLERF), a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation based out of Columbia, Mo. Each day, HLEB provides the gift of sight to cornea transplant recipients by retrieving, processing and distributing the highest quality donor eye tissue to transplant surgeons. For more information about HLEB or MLERF, please call MLERF’s Columbia, Mo. headquarters at 800-753-2265.

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