October 2013
NEWS | HONORS, AWARDS & GRANTS | PHILANTHROPY | PRESS | RECENT PUBLICATIONS | CALENDAR
NEW! HMS Ophthalmology Calendar Now Online
I am pleased to announce that we have launched a dynamic, web-based HMS Ophthalmology calendar that will provide a comprehensive listing of all educational, research and faculty activities department-wide. Our goal is to provide an easy and user-friendly tool for faculty, trainees, alumni and the ophthalmology community to keep track of our growing number of educational programs and activities, particularly as our HMS Ophthalmology Centers of Excellence and Institutes continue to expand. The calendar is now accessible via eyeNews (see link at left), from the Mass. Eye and Ear website (research and education pages) and at http://www.schepens.harvard.edu/calendar.
Faculty may submit listings directly for lectures, symposiums, seminars, workshops, and events as far in advance as they like by clicking on the “Submit an Event” link at the top of the calendar. Submissions will be reviewed and posted by our editorial staff as promptly as possible.
We hope you find this to be a useful tool. If you have any questions, please contact Peter Mallen at peter_mallen@meei.harvard.edu. To submit events, please contact Peter Leslie at peter_leslie@meei.harvard.edu or Karen Bernstein at karen_bernstein@meei.harvard.edu. Special thanks to Pat D’Amore, Peter Mallen, and Leo Hill for leading the effort to get our calendar up and running.
Joan W. Miller, MD, FARVO
Henry Willard Williams Professor of Ophthalmology
Chair, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School
Chief of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear and
Massachusetts General Hospital
HMS Ophthalmology News
HMS Professorship Celebration Honored Two Outstanding Retina Faculty on September 12, 2013 in a dual ceremony. Evangelos Gragoudas and Dean Eliott were honored as the namesake and first incumbent of the Stelios Evangelos Gragoudas Professorship in Ophthalmology at HMS. The celebration was hosted by HMS Dean, Jeffrey S. Flier, and attended by nearly 100 colleagues, friends and family. Temporarily bearing his father’s name, the Professorship will be renamed in Dr. Gragoudas’ honor upon his retirement. Read the full story…
On the Move… The Ophthalmology Research Administration (ORA) group has relocated to the new, first floor north-side suite in the Schepens building at 20 Staniford Street. ORA staffers, including Kim Fechtel, Director, grant administration managers, Lois Toutwid and Tracey Harik, and their team of grant administrators, Cori O’Brien, Amanda Maninos and Fred Janney, are available to meet with you at a convenient location to review grant accounts or prepare for a grant submission. Janis Germagian is providing critical support for both Mass. Eye and Ear and Schepens research operations. The HMS Ophthalmology Communications group also is situated in the new suite, and includes Suzanne Ward (Director), Wendy Chao (Manager, Scientific Communications), Wendy Weissner (Senior Editorial Specialist), Karen Bernstein (Jr. Editorial Specialist) and Beth Durkee (Graphic Design/Digital Media Specialist).
Ophthalmology Clinical Research Administration (OCRO) and Schepens Research Administration share the south-side suite. OCRO members Sarah Yeboah (Business Manager) and clinical research grant administrators, Efosa Lawani and Greg Palladino, relocated to this suite from the 5th floor. Chris Kelly (Senior Pre-Award specialist), Jackie Solberg (Director, Mass. Eye and Ear and Schepens Pre-Award), Judy Ryan (Director, Mass. Eye and Ear and Schepens Research Finance) and Frances Wong Ho (Mass. Eye and Ear Accounting Manager) handle pre- and post-award grant management. Telephone numbers and email addresses remain the same. The 2nd floor North-side suite is being remodeled for Mass and Schepens Research IT groups. Leo Hill has relocated to this location.
Got News? As a reminder, the Mass. Eye and Ear Public Affairs Office welcomes submissions to its weekly E-Forum blast from staff at all Mass. Eye and Ear locations. Submit your staff news and honors, research advances, and other notable materials. Contact Mary Leach (Mary_Leach@meei.harvard.edu, ext. 34170) if you have ideas for articles. E-Forum includes announcements that are of interest and/or open to most Mass. Eye and Ear employees.
Faculty Honors, Awards & Grants
Clarification: Last month eyeNews reported that Eric Pierce received an NIH R01 grant in the amount of $585,000 for his project, "Novel Photoreceptor Proteins and Retinal Degenerations." We want to further clarify that Dr. Pierce’s project was fully funded for five years bringing the total R01 award to $2.85 million.
Patricia D’Amore has been selected to receive a 2013 Mentorship Award from Women in Ophthalmology and the American Medical Association Women Physicians Sector. The award recognizes her sustained career commitment to mentoring and impact on her mentees’ careers, including their contributions to advancing research and patient care in the field of ophthalmology.
HMS Clinical Instructor in Ophthalmology, Jeffrey Dempski, received the prestigious Hands and Heart Award from the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA). The award is given annually to a VA employee who administers direct patient care and sets an example for others, going above and beyond the call of duty in responding to veteran medical needs.
Aaron Fay received a new clinical trial agreement from Premier Research International in the amount of $653K for his investigation, “A Multicenter, Double-Masked, Placebo-Controlled, Efficacy and Safety Study of RV 001, an Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 Receptor (IGF-1R) Antagonist Antibody (Fully Human), Administered Every 3 weeks (Q3W) by Intravenous (IV) in Patients Suffering from Active Thyroid Eye Disease (TED).”
Michael Gilmore was awarded an NIH R01 grant totaling $2.025 million over five years for his project, “Enterococcal Pathogenesis: Role of Cytolysin.”
Pedram Hamrah received an NIH R01 grant totaling $1.25 million over five years for his project, “The Role of Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells in Corneal Immunity.”
Ivana Kim received a clinical trial agreement from Acucela Inc. in the amount of $291,000 for her project, “A Phase 2b/3 Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Masked, Dose-Ranging Study Comparing the Efficacy and Safety of Emixustat Hydrochloride (ACU-4429).”
Tammy Osaki a 2011-12 international Research Fellow in Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, was chosen to receive the prestigious Merrill Reeh Pathology Award from the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery for her paper, “Immunohistochemical Investigations of Orbital Infantile Hemangiomas and Adult Encapsulated Cavernous Venous Lesions (Malformation Versus Hemangioma).” The paper was published in 2012 in Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery.
Sotiria Palioura was selected for the 8th annual Heed Ophthalmic Foundation Residents Retreat, which will be held at the Intercontinental Chicago O’Hare on October 24-25, 2013.
David Ramsey was selected as one of two fellows nationwide to receive the inaugural Sunil K. Rao, MD Memorial Retina Fellowship Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). The award acknowledges and provides educational support for ophthalmologists demonstrating outstanding achievement in retinal disease and will support his attendance at the 2013 AAO annual meeting in New Orleans.
Shruti Aggarwal, Juan Ding, Jing Hua, Wendy Kam, and Sang-Mok Lee received travel awards from the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society to attend the 7th International TFOS Conference, “Basic Science and Clinical Relevance,” held on September 18-21, 2013 in Taormina, Sicily.
Recent Publications
- The authors conducted a retrospective chart review of patients with open globe injuries presenting to the Mass. Eye and Ear between 1999 and 2011 and performed a Kaplan–Meier analysis to estimate the time to detachment. Additionally, multivariable logistic regression was used to define the clinical factors associated with retinal detachment after open globe injury.
- Members of the Mass. Eye and Ear Retina Service describe a simple, inexpensive technique for taking high-quality fundus pictures. Researchers used a smartphone, an inexpensive app for the smartphone, and instruments that are readily available in an ophthalmic practice. This method was tested in both children under anesthesia and in conscious adults, as well as in rabbits.
Dana R, Miller JW. “On the Edge: The Clinician-Scientist in Ophthalmology” in JAMA Ophthalmology – 26 September 2013
- This paper discusses the decline in numbers of contemporary clinician scientists in light of barriers to growth, and considerations for future growth.
- This video demonstrates a method for creating experimental retinal detachments with a reproducible and sustained height of detachment, and without subretinal hemorrhage. The video was highlighted and was narrated by Wendy Chao, PhD, a member of the HMS Ophthalmology Communications Office and features editor of JoVE.
Press
Five Common Health Rumors, Debunked: September 23, 2013 (BostonMagazine.com) Matthew Gardiner, MD debunks the rumor that looking at computer screens all day damages eyesight.