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

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

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 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