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ARCS Doubles Support for Young
Moran Scientists From left, ARCS Foundation Utah Vice President Anne Erickson, ARCS Scholar Allie Simpson, Moran CEO Randall J Olson, ARCS Scholar Sean Collon, ARCS Foundation Utah President Sue Dintelman, and Moran Vice Chair of Education Jeff Pettey.
The Utah chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation awards $15,000 to an incoming Moran Eye Center resident each year to support research. Moran then matches the award for the following two years of residency, providing a total of $45,000 to support research for each scholar. September 2019 marked a new milestone for the partnership: The foundation extended its support to not one but two Moran residents. Sean Collon, MD, completed his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Michigan and earned his medical degree at Vanderbilt University. In medical school, he held a staff position at the student-run free clinic, where he helped implement a teleophthalmology screening for diabetic retinopathy. He also traveled to Nepal and implemented a mobile phone-based teleophthalmology protocol in rural medical camps to improve detection of retinal and optic nerve pathology. At Moran, Collon plans to continue researching health care inequities and the environmental impact and cost of high-quality eye care. Allie Marie Simpson, MD, received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Northern Iowa and earned her medical degree from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. She worked with the Glaucoma Genetics Lab at the university and graduated with research distinction. Her award-winning work aided in the discovery of a new disease-causing mutation in a patient with LADD syndrome and open-angle glaucoma. She also independently screened over 200 glaucoma patients from the Faroe Islands for known glaucoma-causing mutations. Simpson plans further glaucoma and anterior segment research as a Moran resident.
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Research Scholar Honoree Program Ophthalmology Times recognized Bradley Jacobsen, MD, as a Top 5 winner in its annual Research Scholar Honoree Program at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) 2019 meeting in San Francisco. The program offers fellows and residents nationwide an opportunity to share retina research with peers and mentors. Jacobsen, a second-year Moran resident and a 2017 ARCS Scholar, earned fourth place with his AAO presentation, “Prevalence of Retinal Diseases and Associated Risk Factors in an African Population from Mwanza, Tanzania.” His research will be published in Ophthalmology Times and featured in a supplement to a peerreviewed publication this year.
Moran resident Bradley Jacobsen
