Resident Noam Rudnick Receives Gragoudas-Folkman Award

August 8, 2019

noam-rudnickSecond-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. He will complete the project under the guidance of his mentors Brian Hafler, MD, PhD, and Dean Eliott, MD.

Dr. Rudnick graduated magna cum laude with double majors in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and philosophy from Yale University. He earned his MD and PhD in neurobiology and behavior from Columbia University.

His doctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Tom Maniatis focused on the role of autophagy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and resulted in a publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. During graduate school, he mentored local high school and college students as part of the Columbia University Neuroscience Outreach Program. He also received a National Institutes of Health predoctoral fellowship and the Behrens Memorial Prize in Ophthalmology, and was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society.

More about the Award

Anthony Adamis, MD, a member of the Harvard Ophthalmology faculty and Global Head of Ophthalmology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Genentech/Roche, established the award in 2016, using his portion of the proceeds from the 2014 António Champalimaud Vision Award. The gift is a tribute to the expert teaching and mentorship he received from Evan Gragoudas, MD, and the late Judah Folkman, MD—two world-renowned pioneers in their fields.