Harvard Ophthalmology Affiliates Receive More Than $400,000 in Massachusetts Lions Eye Research Fund Grants

September 20, 2022

A key foundation partner to Harvard Ophthalmology, the Massachusetts Lions Eye Research Fund (MLERF) continues to provide critical support to the research programs of researcher at our affiliates. MLERF will provide more than $400,000 in funding to support the following innovative research projects.

Beetham Eye Institute at Joslin Diabetes Center

  • Mohamed Elmasry, MD, PhD: “Combined ultrawide field and optical coherence tomography imaging in the management of advanced diabetic retinopathy”
  • Paolo S. Silva, MD: “AI for diabetic retinopathy image classification from ultrawide field retinal images”
  • Jennifer K. Sun, MD, MPH: “Elucidating abnormalities in neurovascular coupling in the diabetic retina”

Boston Children's Hospital

  • Zhongjie Fu, PhD: “Folic acid supplementation inhibits retinal neovascularization and nerve cell damage"
  • Isdin Oke, MD, and Deborah VanderVeen, MD: “Ocular growth in children with a history of cataract surgery”
  • Lois Smith, MD, PhD: “Essential lipids prevent ROP”

Mass Eye and Ear

  • Paulo Bispo, PhD: "Illuminating etiologies and pathogenesis mechanisms in infectious uveitis by RNA sequencing"
  • Milica Margeta, MD, PhD: "How does inflammation harm neurons in glaucoma?"
  • Lucy Shen, MD: "Genetic, systemic, and ophthalmic basis of vascular pathology in primary open angle glaucoma"

Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass Eye and Ear

  • Yihe Chen, MD: “Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 mediated regulation of memory T cells in chronic uveitis"
  • Yihe Chen, MD and Jia Yin, MD, PhD, MPH: “Restoration of cellular normoxia in preventing epithelial-mesenchymal transformation of retinal pigment epithelial cells and development of proliferative vitreoretinopathy"
See also: Grants, Research