Patricia D’Amore, PhD, MBA, the Charles L. Schepens Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, is the recipient of the Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) 2024 David F. Weeks Award for Outstanding Vision Research. The Weeks Award, funded through the generosity of RPB, an anonymous donor, and the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology (AUPO), annually recognizes and celebrates an exceptional vision researcher. Dr. D’Amore will receive her award and deliver a presentation during the AUPO 2024 Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas in February.
Dr. D’Amore is an internationally recognized expert of vascular growth and development and has been at the forefront of angiogenesis research for over three decades. Among her foremost transformative contributions is the identification of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) as the elusive “Factor X” that causes pathological blood vessel growth in blinding neovascular eye diseases. These investigations formed the scientific foundations of anti-VEGF therapies, which were first approved for clinical use in 2004 and are currently used to treat various cancers and intraocular vascular diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Dr. D’Amore also developed a widely used mouse model of oxygen-induced retinopathy, which has served as the cornerstone of many basic scientific investigations of vascular development and preclinical studies of vascular-targeting agents.
Dr. D’Amore is the recipient of numerous other awards and honors including the Alcon Research Institute Award, the Cogan Award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), the Rous-Whipple Award from the American Society of Investigative Pathology, the Endre A. Balazs Award from the International Society for Eye Research, and the Proctor Medal from ARVO. For her contributions to the development of anti-angiogenic therapy for retinal disease, Dr. D’Amore was a co-recipient of the 2014 António Champalimaud Vision Award, the highest distinction in ophthalmology and visual science. Most recently, she received the Shining Example Award from her alma mater, Regis College, the Earl P. Benditt Award from the North American Vascular Biology Organization, and the American Physiological Society Gabor Kaley Memorial Lectureship Award. In 2018 she was elected as a Fellow of American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and earlier this year, Dr. D’Amore was elected President of ARVO.