About the new Moran Eye Center

The new Moran Eye Center was designed and built based on input from focus groups consisting of individuals with varying levels of sight abilities. It is now home to more than 40 faculty members, including one of the top retinal research teams in the world. In 1993 there were only 26 faculty members. Moran researchers are involved in more than 25 active clinical trials, compared to three in 1993. These studies involve more than 2,700 clinical visits each year. The Moran Eye Center's annual research grants from the National Institutes of Health exceeded $6.5 million dollars in 2005, placing it eighth in the nation for NIH grants.

The New Moran Eye Center...

• is the largest vision treatment and research center between the West Coast and Texas.
• Has attracted over 40 faculty members, including vision researchers and specialists who come from 10 different countries, and more than 350 staff members.
• Is home to the Utah Lions Eye Bank, which provides donor tissue for vision-restoring corneal transplants to more than 400 recipients in Utah and Wyoming every year.
• Received more than $6.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to support vision research in 2005. Additional support comes from private donors and revenue generated from clinical and surgical services.
• Is privately funded by patient care. Less than 1 percent of the center's budget comes from the State of Utah.
• Uses profits generated from the center's clinics to support ongoing clinical and basic science research into blinding eye diseases.
• And its 11 satellite clinics host more than 90,000 clinic visits each year. Moran Eye Center surgeons perform nearly 5,000 surgical procedures each year.

The New Moran Eye Center building...

• Has more than 400,000 feet of data cabling for data transfer, network and telephones. This amounts to approximately 78 miles of cable!
• Uses geo-foam blocks to "carve" the garden area. These blocks serve as lightweight "filler" in place of heavier topsoil.
• Is made of more than 18,500 cubic yards of concrete the equivalent of a three-foot sidewalk from Salt Lake City to Logan, Utah.
• Is constructed with more than 5 million pounds of steel
• Had an average of 150 workers representing approximately 40 different contracting companies on the project each day.
• Has placed 1,781,300 pounds of reinforcing steel bar (rebar) in concrete. This is the equivalent weight of approximately 600 mid-size cars.