Medical College Researcher to Use Adaptive Optics to Study Eye Disease
The Medical College of Wisconsin has received a $250,000, four-year career development grant from Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) to support research of diseases that impact the retina and the optic nerve.
Alfredo Dubra, PhD, assistant professor of ophthalmology and biophysics, is the primary investigator of the grant.
Dr. Dubra will use adaptive optics to take high resolution images that allow visualization of individual cells in living eyes. Analysis of those images will provide insight into diseases that impact the eye, including glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.
“Ophthalmic adaptive optics is an exciting technology because it has the potential to simultaneously increase our understanding of eye disease, accelerate the development of new therapies and improve our ability to diagnose early stages of eye disease, all of which would help to reduce irreversible partial or total vision loss that results from conditions that affect the retina,” said Dr. Dubra.
Adaptive optics is a developing technology in the area of eye research, and the Medical College of Wisconsin is an international leader in the field. The College currently has two advanced ophthalmic adaptive optics systems developed in house, and has renovated a larger research facility which will house an additional three systems. The RPB award will support the creation of a team of optics, computer, and software engineers, who will use these new instruments to make this technology more applicable in the clinic. They will also create new ways to see the early changes that occur in the diseased retina.
“We are tremendously grateful to Research to Prevent Blindness for its unwavering commitment to the vision research community,” said Dale Heuer, professor and chairman of ophthalmology.
The RPB Career Development Award Fund was established in 1990 to attract young physicians and basic scientists to eye research. RPB has provided more than $4 million in research funding to the Medical College.
About the Medical College of Wisconsin
The Medical College of Wisconsin is the state’s only private medical school and health sciences graduate school. Founded in 1893, it is dedicated to leadership and excellence in education, patient care, research and service. More than 1,200 students are enrolled in the Medical College’s medical school and graduate school programs. A major national research center, it is the largest research institution in the Milwaukee metro area and second largest in Wisconsin. In FY 2010 – 11, faculty received more than $175 million in external support for research, teaching, training and related purposes, of which more than $161 million is for research. This total includes highly competitive research and training awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Annually, College faculty direct or collaborate on more than 2,000 research studies, including clinical trials. Additionally, more than 1,250 physicians provide care in virtually every specialty of medicine for more than 400,000 patients annually.