#  Four Faculty and Trainees Receive Research to Prevent Blindness Awards 

 





January 14, 2025

 

 

 **Leo Kim, MD, PhD, Receives RPB Physician-Scientist Award**  
Dr. Kim received this award, which provides $300,000 in grant funding to promote the clinical and basic science research of clinicians. The award will support his research to further elucidate the molecular mechanisms of RUNX1 in angiofibrosis as found in patients with advanced proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

 Specifically, he is investigating the process of endothelial-mesenchymal transition, in which endothelial cells of abnormal vessels transdifferentiate into fibroblast-like cells. Leo aims to develop an mRNA-encoded RUNX1-Trap as a new therapeutic modality for diabetic retinopathy.

 **Inas Aboobakar, MD, Receives RPB Career Development Award**  
This award will support Dr. Aboobakar and her research on the genetic basis of glaucoma to optimize approaches to disease diagnosis, risk stratification, monitoring, and treatment. Specifically, Dr. Aboobakar aims to investigate the impact of mitochondrial function on primary open-angle glaucoma risk through analyses involving mitochondrial DNA copy number and mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy.

 **Brionna Bennett Receives RPB/Johnson & Johnson Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship**  
Brionna Bennett, a medical student at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville and a 2023 alumna of the Harvard Ophthalmology Research Scholars Program, received this award, which will support a one-year research fellowship at Mass Eye and Ear.

 Working under the mentorship of Paulo Bispo, PhD, Brionna will use next-generation sequencing and rapid nanostring-based pathogen detection with the goal of improving the diagnosis of infectious endophthalmitis.

 **Jatniel Rodriguez Receives RPB/American Osteopathic Colleges of Ophthalmology & Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship**  
Jatniel Rodriguez, a medical student at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, received this award, which will support a one-year research fellowship at Mass Eye and Ear.   
   
Working under the mentorship of Kinga Bujakowska, PhD, Jatniel will use vivo models and human induced pluripotent stem cells to study the pathophysiology of inherited retinal degenerations caused by the EYS gene.



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Awards ](/category/awards)
 
 

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