This year's Iraty Award for Research in Retinal Diseases honors Petr Baranov, PhD, a scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass. Eye and Ear and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. The award, which includes a $100,000 prize, was established by an anonymous donor to pay tribute to the life and work of Dr. Charles Schepens—the father of modern retinal surgery and World War II hero.
The award will support Dr. Baranov's development of deep, learning-based computer algorithms to distinguish features of stem-cell derived organoids based on the brightfield imaging. Dr. Baranov hopes that by developing a universal, noninvasive, scalable, and rapid approach to assess the state of the cell and forecast its fate would have a significant impact on stem-cell research.