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wjimm unionville researcher dr pk basu has been in strumental in bringing sight to many vision- impaired canadians over the years here dr basu displays an experiment to determine the effect of electroradiation on the human eye at his university of toronto research centre story and photos by ed rogers as a result of research 86 per cent of corneal transplant operations are successful today this container is specially designed to transport human eyes for transplant without damaging tissue gift of sight given by local doctor eyebank manager anne wolf talks excitedly into the phone an eye donated from a child killed in a traffic accident 1 is on the way and shes hurridly tracking down a patient to re ceive a cornea graft chances are great it will be that patients lucky day about 86 per cent of cornea grafts res- tore sight says mrs wolf but time is short corneas the clear concave tissue covering the eye lens last about 24 hours says dr pk basu director of the university of toronto eye bank and the uni versitys opthalriiic research centre the lifespan can be extended to four days with steroids and refrigeration but the fresher the eye the better it is for trans plant he said in an interview at the university in downtown toronto dr basu moved to unionville two years ago with his wife son and daughterinlaw earlier this month he was made an hon orary member of the unionville lions club with which he has had a 15year association over that time lions clubs in district a16 have donated more than 50000 to further dr basus eye research said dave gascoigne director of a16s ophthalmic foundation the ophthalmic research de partment costs approximately 500000 including salaries to run each year said dr basu the ten rooms under his direction are home to a wide variety of researches including theef feet of pollution prescrip- tion drugs and electronic radia tion on the eye there scientists search for a workable plastic cornea and ex tensively study the use of anim al corneas for humans another important area of his research is to extend to seven days the lifespan of a detached cornea v both positive and negative results are a success because you find the truth he said in canada corneal disease is the eighth leading cause of blindness- according to a spokesman for the canadian national institute for the blind in india where the 65-year- old doctors distinguished career began it was the num ber one cause he concluded in a medical paper between 1951 and 1955 the eye specialist operated in a village mission hospital indian and englishlanguage newspaper clippings from the time reported cornea grafts implants into the vitreous the white walls of the eye surgery to correct squinting and cross eyed vision arid other advanced eye surgery dr basu also began the first indian eye bank at the mission hospital a local hero his surgical skill carrieho the attention of the canadian governmentwho couldnt believe this work was being done outside a teaching hospitalhe said a fellowship brought him temporarily to canada but when he was to return to india in 1957 the university of toronto offered him a research job i thought i could do more good by research rather than on individual operations he said of his decision to stay i could been quite rich if i had stayed operating but money is not the only thing he said that year he helped found canadas first and ontarios only eye bank every year since the amount of eyes going through the first class eye bankhas increased last year in ontario there were 790 cornea operations in ontar io said mrs wolf presently there is a waiting list of 62 people toronto eye bank manager anne wolf displays two corneas being readied for transport to a toronto hospital the corneas which have a lifespan of approximately 24 hours were to be used i in a feb 16 transplant s assistant researcher syed hasany left and dr pk basu stand beside the video display screen i that plays tapes photographed through a special microscope pictured are individual cornea cells that arc checked for flaws tiebt i 1 1 a ia ii i3i2q3ipjsj tt