The lens: local transport and global transparency

The perception of the lens changed remarkably during the career of David Maurice. The early view was that it was an inert sack of protein that assisted the cornea in focusing light on the retina. As investigators looked more carefully, more and more complexity was revealed and today we know the lens is a living, dynamic organ that carries out a host of biochemical and physiological processes necessary for homeostasis. We have worked on the lens over this period and have provided a small part of the data on lens physiology. This paper is an overview of our own contributions, in the context of the ever evolving view of the lens. Given this is a brief tribute to the career of David Maurice, there is not enough space nor is it appropriate to provide a complete review of all the work that has contributed to this evolving