Current Research Awards & Fellowships
2025 – Aging Immune Response in Choroidal Neovascularization
- Duc Tran and Goldis Malek, PhD
- Duke Eye Center
2025 – Neuronal Activity Regulates Ganglion Cell Degeneration in Multiple Sclerosis
- Jenna Staples and Sebastian Werneburg, PhD
- University of Michigan – Kellogg Eye Center
2025 – Central micrOperimetry and Radial OCT Evaluation in Geographic Atrophy (CORE-GA): a Prospective Pilot Study
- Madelynn Mackenzie, MD and Jay Stewart, MD
- University of California San Francisco
2025 – Integrin αvβ3 -Targeting CAR Macrophages as a Novel Therapy for Choroidal Neovascularization
- Poonam Naik and Rajendra Apte, MD, PhD
- Washington University School of Medicine – Department of Ophthalmology
2025 – PA28γ-mediated proteasome activation: a novel strategy to restore proteostasis in degenerating photoreceptors
- Sushil Kumar Dubey, PhD and Vadim Arshavsky, PhD
- Duke Eye Center
2025 – Longitudinal Multimodal Retinal and Choroidal Imaging in Cognitively Normal APOE ε4 Carriers and Noncarriers: Five-Year Follow Up Findings
- Alex Choi and Sharon Fekrat, MD
- Duke Eye Center
2025 – Endothelial VEGFR2 Signaling as a Regulator of Vascular and Neuronal Development in a model of Retinopathy of Prematurity
- Aniket Ramshekar, MD, PhD and Mary Elizabeth Hartnett, MD
- Stanford University – Byers Eye Institute
2025 – Preoperative unilateral patching in patients with retinal detachment
- Brandon Kennedy, MD and Benjamin Young, MD
- OHSU – Casey Eye Institute
2025 – Optic Nerve Perfusion Changes following Retinal Detachment Surgery
- Ghazi Bou Ghanem, MD and Avni Finn, MD
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center - Vanderbilt Eye Institute
2025 – Characterizing an imaging-defined pure subretinal drusenoid deposit phenotype in AMD: systemic vascular associations and relationship to AMD progression
- Janice Ong, MD and Demetrios Vavvas, MD, PhD
- Harvard Medical School - Massachusetts Eye & Ear
2025 – Validation of TWO-ROP algorithm sensitivity for treatment-warranted ROP
- Jared Macher, MD and Polly Quiram, MD, PhD; Nimesh Patel, MD
- Retina Consultants of Minnesota
2025 – Development of gene supplementation therapy for TULP1-related inherited retinal degenerations
- Jesus Santiago Vidaurri Martinez, MD and Oleg Alekseev, MD, PhD
- Duke Eye Center
2025 – Optimizing LNP Composition for pDNA Transfection in iPSC-Derived RPE Cells
- Joseph Giacalone, MD, PhD and Raymond Iezzi, MD
- Mayo Clinic - Department of Ophthalmology
2025 – Determining the Association between Parapapillary Atrophy in Ultra-Widefield Retinal Images and Refractive Status in Children
- Juliet Nolt and Lejla Vajzovic, MD
- Duke Eye Center
2025 – Elucidation of the role of the Fas/FasL Apoptotic Pathway in Human Retina
- Justin Muste, MD and Jose Pulido, MD; Tatyana Millman, MD
- Wills Eye Hospital
2025 – Defining the Plasticity Window for Gene Therapy in Retinitis Pigmentosa
- Kamila Milejczyk and Miranda Scalabrino, PhD
- Medical College of Wisconsin – Eye Institute
2025 – Computational Identification and Druggability Assessment of EMT-Associated Proteins in Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy
- Mak Djulbegovic, MD and Ajay Kuriyan, MD
- Wills Eye Hospital
2025 – Decoding a Noncoding Variant: Regulatory Mechanisms of BEST1 in Adult-Onset Vitelliform Dystrophy
- Maria Emfietzoglou, MD and Demetrios Vavvas, MD, PhD
- Harvard Medical School - Massachusetts Eye & Ear
2025 – Publicly available tool for fully automated quantitative optical coherence tomography angiography metric calculation
- Michael Drakopoulos, MD and Rukhsana Mirza, MD
- Northwestern University – Feinberg School of Medicine
2025 – Characterization of Silicone Oil Emulsification in a Saccadic Eye Model
- Mya Abousy, MD and Harry Flynn, MD
- University of Miami - Bascom Palmer Eye Institute
2025 – Evaluating the Rod Photoreceptor Mosaic in Congenital Achromatopsia and Blue Cone Monochromacy
- Natalie Ungaretti and Joseph Carroll, PhD
- Medical College of Wisconsin – Eye Institute
2025 – Practice patterns and complex retinal detachment outcomes related to the use of methotrexate in the treatment and prevention of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR)
- Param Bhatter, MD and Gaurav Shah, MD
- West Coast Retina
2025 – Determine how Disease-Associated Microglia (DAM) Impair Retinal Ganglion Cell Integrity and Visual Function in Multiple Sclerosis
- Prachi Gupta and Sebastian Werneburg, PhD
- University of Michigan – Kellogg Eye Center
2025 – Comparison of retinal vascularity index in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, and controls with normal cognition using ultra-widefield fundus images
- Rachel D’Cunha and Sharon Fekrat, MD
- Duke Eye Center
2025 – Evaluation of Anterior Segment Parameters After Secondary Intraocular Lens Implantation Using Scheimpflug Tomography
- Rani Hassoun, MD and Matthew Starr, MD
- Mayo Clinic - Department of Ophthalmology
2025 – Artificial Intelligence for Registration, Automated Grading, and Progression Prediction of Geographic Atrophy from Near-Infrared OCT Imaging
- Reem Amine, MD and Lejla Vajzovic, MD
- Duke Eye Center
2025 – Gas bubble dynamics of air versus SF6 versus C3F8 tamponade during retinal detachment repair
- Richard Sather, MD and Geoffrey Emerson, MD, PhD
- Retina Consultants of Minnesota
2025 – Low Dose Ionizing Radiation as a Potential Hormetic Treatment for Dry Age-related Macular
- Ritvik Korrapati, PhD and Goldis Malek, PhD
- Duke Eye Center
2025 – Vitamin D Status and Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy: A Multimodal Investigation Using Real-World Data and Translational in vitro Fibrosis Models
- Ryan Meshkin, MD and Nimesh Patel, MD; Leo Kim, MD, PhD
- Harvard Medical School - Massachusetts Eye & Ear
2025 – Structural and Functional Outcomes of Infants Born <23 Weeks’ Gestation with Retinopathy of Prematurity
- Sahal Saleh, MD and Polly Quiram, MD, PhD; Peter Belin, MD
- Retina Consultants of Minnesota
2025 – CMV Retinitis in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients: Incidence, Retinal Outcomes, and Clinical Features in Belatacept-Exposed Patients
- Samer Bilal and Baseer Ahmad, MD
- Medical College of Wisconsin – Eye Institute
2025 – Automated Deep Learning-Based Segmentation and Quantification of Uveal Melanoma Using Ocular Ultrasound
- Sanjay Ganesh and Michael Heiferman, MD
- University of Illinois Chicago
2025 – Structural and Functional Multimodal Imaging Analysis of a PRPH2 associated retinal degeneration (PARD) cohort
- Shane Griffin, MD and Shyamanga Borooah, PhD
- UCSD – Shiley Eye Institute
2025 – Characteristics and Outcomes of Submacular Hemorrhage (SMH) in Patients Receiving Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) Intravitreal Injections for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration (nAMD)
- Shreya Swaminathan, MD and Matthew Starr, MD
- Mayo Clinic - Department of Ophthalmology
2025 – Therapeutic Potential of Flavanoids in Improving Visual Function in a Myo1c Knockout Mouse Model of Usher Syndrome 1B
- Sophie Gao and Glenn P. Lobo, PhD
- University of Minnesota – Department of Ophthalmology
2025 – An Eye on Cognition: Retinal Microvascular Imaging and Analysis as a Window into Vascular Dementia
- Tahvi Frank, MD and Tyson Kim, MD, PhD
- University of California San Francisco
2025 – Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing and transcriptomic analysis for the detection of ocular pathogens and biomarkers in for presumed idiopathic uveitis
- Timothy Kaftan, MD and Steven Yeh, MD
- University of Nebraska – Truhlsen Eye Institute
2025 – Liquid Biopsy Profiling of Proteomic Pathways Driving Neovascular Conversion after Anti-Complement Therapy in Geographic Atrophy
- Tsai-Chu Yeh, MD and Vinit Mahajan, MD; Prithvi Mruthyunjaya, MD
- Stanford University – Byers Eye Institute
2025 – Clinically Actionable OCT-A Biomarkers: A Retinal Microangiopathy Index for Risk Stratification in Diabetic Retinopathy
- Wilson Wang, MD and Rajendra Apte, MD, PhD
- Washington University School of Medicine – Department of Ophthalmology