Research Roundup

Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Research Awards

Duke Eye Center has remained a top academic medical institution for laboratory and clinical research in ophthalmology. Faculty, trainees and research staff are passionate about new discoveries to improve patient care and are recipients of many prestigious research grants. Research to Prevent Blindness has been an important partner in Duke Eye Center research funding.

Anthony Kuo, MD, associate professor of ophthalmology, was granted the prestigious RPB Physician-Scientist Award to support his project “Robotically Assisted Anterior Eye Examinations for Acute Eye Care.” The Physician-Scientist Award is designed to allow physicians to devote more time to clinical research activities. Kuo will use this grant to extend the capabilities of a previously developed imaging system that can provide robotically aligned optical coherence tomography (RAOCT) for semi-automated retinal imaging of patients and test diagnostic performance of this system. Kuo is one of 17 RPB Physician-Scientists who have received the award since it was re-established in 2015. The Department of Ophthalmology has been awarded an RPB Unrestricted Grant to support eye research conducted by the department. This funding has been awarded based on a thorough review of criteria, including the department’s research activities, laboratory environment, and clinical and scientific staff, as evaluated by RPB’s renowned Scientific Advisory Panel.

Soha Noorani, MS4 and Duke Visiting Observer received a $30,000 Research to Prevent Blindness/ American Osteopathic College of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (RPB/AOCOOHNS) Foundation Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship. This grant supports Noorani taking a year off from medical school to pursue a research project within the Duke Department of Ophthalmology. Since it was founded in 1960, RPB has channeled more than $403 million into eye research. As a result, RPB has been identified with nearly every major breakthrough in vision research in that time. For information on RPB’s grants program, listings of RPB institutional and individual grantees, and findings generated by these awards, go to www.rpbusa.org.