The Postdoctoral Training Program at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear gave two awards for best scientific paper by a trainee at Fellows’ Recognition Day on June 9, 2017 – one in the category of Wet Lab and one in the category of Dry Lab.
Anitha Krishnan, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Meredith Gregory-Ksander, PhD, at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass. Eye and Ear, won the 2017 Best Scientific Paper in the Wet Lab category. Her paper titled “Overexpression of soluble fas ligand following AAV gene therapy prevents retinal ganglion cell death in chronic and acute murine models of glaucoma,” was published in the Journal of Immunology and explores neuroprotection in glaucoma using gene therapy.
Corinna Bauer, PhD, an Instructor in Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and Investigator at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass. Eye and Ear, won the 2017 Best Scientific Paper in the Dry Lab category. Her paper titled, “Neural correlates associated with superior tactile symmetry perception in the early blind” was published in Cortex, and compared behavioural performance on a tactile symmetry detection task and also utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify areas of the brain responsible for processing tactile symmetry in early blind individuals compared to typically sighted controls. The results contribute to the growing evidence supporting superior behavioural abilities in the blind as well as the neural correlates associated with crossmodal neuroplasticity following early visual deprivation. While she is currently a faculty member, her winning paper was submitted to the contest while she was still a trainee in the Postdoctoral Training Program.