Joseph Arboleda-Velasquez, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Assistant Scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass Eye and Ear, is a 2022 recipient of the Edward N. & Della L. Thome Memorial Foundation Awards Program in Alzheimer's Disease Drug Discovery Research.... Read more about Joseph Arboleda-Velasquez, MD, PhD, Awarded $500,000 in Funding to Support Alzheimer's Research

Nazlee Zebardast, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and Director of Glaucoma Imaging at Mass Eye and Ear, has been awarded the Research to Prevent Blindness 2021 Career Development Award.... Read more about Nazlee Zebardast, MD, MSc Receives RPB Career Development Award

A key foundation partner to Harvard Ophthalmology, the Massachusetts Lions Eye Research Fund (MLERF) has selected several faculty to receive research awards. For academic year 2021-22, MLERF will provide $420,000 in funding to support innovative research projects across our affiliates.

... Read more about Harvard Ophthalmology Affiliates Receive $420,000 in Lions Grants for Eye Research

Jia Yin, MD, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, is the recent recipient of three research awards to support her basic and clinical research in the areas of corneal angiogenesis, innervation, wound healing, and regeneration.... Read more about Jia Yin, MD, PhD, MPH, Recognized with Three Research Awards

Joseph F. Arboleda-Velasquez, MD, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and assistant scientist at Mass Eye and Ear who studies small vessel disease in the brain and the eye, has been awarded a five-year, $4 million gift from Good Ventures to spur his lab’s groundbreaking work into Alzheimer’s disease genetic resistance.... Read more about Joseph F. Arboleda-Velásquez, MD, PhD, Receives $4 Million Research Gift

This year's Iraty Award for Research in Retinal Diseases honors Petr Baranov, PhD, a scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass. Eye and Ear and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology...

Researchers led by a team at Massachusetts Eye and Ear have identified a novel cellular entry factor for adeno-associated virus vector (AAV) types—the most commonly used viral vectors for in vivo gene therapy. AAVs are vectors–or vehicles—that are created from a virus that is made harmless by molecular engineering, and have shown promise transporting genetic therapy treatments to affected tissues.... Read more about Researchers Uncover Mechanism for How Common Gene Therapy Vectors Enter Cells

The Tej Kohli Foundation has pledged $2 million over five years to establish the Tej Kohli Cornea Program at Mass. Eye and Ear, which will accelerate innovative and collaborative research to achieve unprecedented breakthroughs in corneal disease. 

... Read more about Mass. Eye and Ear Receives $2 Million for Corneal Research

Second-year Harvard Ophthalmology resident Noam Rudnick, MD, PhD, received the 2019 Gragoudas-Folkman Award, which will provide up to $20,000 to help fund his research on cell type-specific roles of autophagy in age-related macular degeneration.... Read more about Resident Noam Rudnick Receives Gragoudas-Folkman Award

A large-scale, collaborative, systems biology approach is needed to expedite the discovery of treatments for dry age-related macular degeneration, according to a report by a working group of scientists appointed by the National Advisory Eye Council (NAEC) that includes Joan. W. Miller, MD, Chair of Harvard Ophthalmology.

... Read more about Joan W. Miller Part of Expert Panel that Recommends Strategy Shift to Discover Dry AMD Treatments

A recent meta-analysis, led by Deeba Husain, MD, suggests that AMD patients present distinct plasma metabolomic profiles, which vary with disease severity. After analyzing blood samples of their 491 patients from two cohorts–one in Boston and one in Coimbra, Portugal–they found that metabolites differed significantly between AMD patients as compared to controls, and with various stages of the disease.... Read more about Researchers Identify Metabolomics as a Potential Tool to Improve Diagnostic and Prognostic Information on AMD

Investigators at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard have used a novel approach to identify specific amino acids in the protein structure of HIV that appear critical to the ability of the virus to function and replicate.... Read more about Researchers Identify Viral Peptides Critical to Natural HIV Control

New research led by Kip Connor, PhD, finds that microglia—the primary immune cells of the central nervous system, including the retina—play a vital role in regulating neuroinflammation in autoimmune uveitis. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and featured on eyewire News, may one day lead to better treatment targets for the disease.

In the preclinical model of autoimmune uveitis, the researchers describe, for the first time, a role for microglia in directing the initiation of autoimmune uveitis by orchestrating the inflammatory response within the retina. In reaction to disease induction, microglia closely associate with the retinal vasculature and facilitate inflammatory immune cell entry past the blood brain, or ocular, barrier into the retina. When the researchers depleted microglia in this model, they observed that the disease was completely blocked.

... Read more about Mass. Eye and Ear Research Team Link Immune Cells to Uveitis

A new study led by a research team from Harvard Medical School and Mass. Eye and Ear, describes how bacteria adapted to the modern hospital environment and repeatedly cause antibiotic-resistant bloodstream infections. This study examined one of the first sustained hospital outbreaks of a multidrug-resistant bacterium, Enterococcus faecalis, which occurred from the early through the mid-1980s, causing over 60 outbreak strains.... Read more about Study Led by Michael Gilmore, PhD, Identifies Pathway for how Enterococcus Faecalis Bacteria Causes Antibiotic-Resistant Infection

Congratulations to the following Harvard Ophthalmology Faculty and Trainees on recieving ARVO Travel Grants:   

• Dina B. K. Abusamra, PhD, Clinical Research Fellow at Mass. Eye and Ear
• Saghar...