Since 2021 The Glaucoma Foundation (sponsored by Patricia Hill) has been co-funding up to five $10,000 supplemental Fellowships with Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB). These fellowships are targeted to Under-Represented Minorities (URMs) as defined by the NIH, who are Fellows in Departments of Ophthalmology, and engaged in substantive glaucoma research as part of their Fellowships. To date, 14 Fellows have been funded.
TGF and RPB are also co-funding a $150,000 RPB/ Glaucoma Foundation Career Advancement Award in Glaucoma Research, which is available to assistant professors, helping to advance their research and career.
The Fellowships for 2024 have just been announced. Winner of the Fall 2023 Career Advancement Award is Ayellet V. Segré, MSc, PhD, Harvard Medical School, who is working on a study that is expected to identify new biological insights into neuroprotective mechanisms of glaucoma and to suggest new therapeutic targets.
The five winners of the supplemental fellowships to under-represented minorities engaged in substantive glaucoma research as part of their fellowships are:
Viviana Barquet, MD, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. Dr. Barquet is involved in a study evaluating how the social determinants of health influenced appointment adherence and impact on disease in patients with glaucoma before, during, and following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leangelo Hall, MD, Wills Eye Hospital. This funding will allow Dr. Hall to study and help improve the ability of artificial intelligence technology to identify referable glaucoma in the hopes of increasing access, detection, and ultimately treatment of glaucoma for medically underserved, high-risk individuals.
Alanna Elise James, MD, University of Southern California. She is using this grant to assist in the study of conversion of glaucoma suspects to manifest glaucoma, which they believe will indicate suboptimal resource utilization in glaucoma care. If true, this could drive reallocation of many of those resources towards areas in need.
Giselle N. Lynch, MD, Columbia University Dept of Ophthalmology. The Manhattan Vision Screening and Follow-up Study (NYC-SIGHT) aims to investigate whether innovative community-based eye health screenings can improve early detection and management of glaucoma and other eye diseases among high-risk populations living in Upper Manhattan neighborhoods of Harlem and Washington Heights.
Anthony Mukwaya, MD, Harvard Medical School. This supplemental fellowship will be used to procure reagents and supplies required to perform planned single cell RNA sequencing experiments to understand how retinal microenvironment contributes to glaucoma disease development and progression.
About The Glaucoma Foundation
The Glaucoma Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of people with glaucoma. Since 1984, The Foundation has worked to encourage and support basic and applied research in glaucoma, to gain and disseminate new information about its causes and treatment, and to further identify and develop novel approaches to preserve visual function and reverse blindness. Through education and outreach, we strive to be a valuable resource to help patients, their families, and at-risk individuals to manage their disease and its repercussions. (VP/Newswise)