WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP): A Purdue University researcher teaming up with a Chinese eye center and university in hopes of finding treatments or cures for retinal degeneration.

Yuk Fai Leung is testing the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine as they seek treatments for the condition that is one of the leading causes of severe vision loss in the elderly around the world.

Leung says his laboratory uses zebra fish to screen the traditional Chinese compounds. He says the fish have similar eye structures to humans, including light sensitivity and similar retina architecture.

The fish also are inexpensive to keep, which makes the research cost-effective.

Leung says future collaborations between Purdue and Chinese researchers are in the works.