Contact: Suzanne Day
suzanne_day@meei.harvard.edu
617-573-3897
BOSTON – The Harvard Medical School Department of Ophthalmology has been granted a $30,000 Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship for Daniel Diaz-Aguilar. This grant will allow Diaz-Aguilar to spend a year studying the mechanisms behind the advancement of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). He will work under the mentorship of Kip Connor, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.
A second-year medical student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Mr. Diaz-Aguilar has a strong background in neuroscience and retinal pathology research. With support from the RPB fellowship, Mr. Diaz-Aguilar hopes to learn more about geographic atrophy—a leading cause of blindness among patients with AMD.
“We are grateful for this generous support from Research to Prevent Blindness,” said Joan W. Miller, MD, Chief of Ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital, and Chair of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. “It is my sincere hope that Mr. Diaz Aguilar’s research will have a positive impact on the field.”
About Research to Prevent Blindness
RPB is the world’s leading voluntary organization supporting eye research. Since it was founded in 1960, RPB has channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to medical institutions throughout the United States for research into blinding eye diseases. For information on RPB, RPB-funded research, eye disorders and the RPB Grants Program, go towww.rpbusa.org.
About Massachusetts Eye and Ear
Mass. Eye and Ear clinicians and scientists are driven by a mission to find cures for blindness, deafness and diseases of the head and neck. Now united with Schepens Eye Research Institute, Mass. Eye and Ear is the world's largest vision and hearing research center, developing new treatments and cures through discovery and innovation. Mass. Eye and Ear is a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital and trains future medical leaders in ophthalmology and otolaryngology, through residency as well as clinical and research fellowships. Internationally acclaimed since its founding in 1824, Mass. Eye and Ear employs full-time, board-certified physicians who offer high-quality and affordable specialty care that ranges from the routine to the very complex. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals Survey” ranked the Mass. Eye and Ear Department of Otolaryngology as number one in the nation this year. For more information about life-changing care and research, or to learn how you can help, please visit MassEyeAndEar.org.