Supporting Student Physician-Scientists

Each year, the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation awards $15,000 to an incoming Moran Eye Center resident to support research. This generous gift allows promising young scientists to pursue research during their residencies with the hope they will choose careers that continue their scientific investigations. Moran matches the award for the following two years of residency, providing a total of $45,000.

Moran’s 2020 ARCS Scholar, Lydia Sauer, MD, is an accomplished researcher who has already contributed to medical advances using new imaging technology to detect eye diseases earlier than ever before.

Lydia Sauer, MD, left, performs a scan using fluorescence lifetime imaging ophthalmoscopy (FLIO).

Sauer completed medical school at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, where she also pursued a doctoral degree in the Department of Experimental Ophthalmology.

Her thesis focused on a new retinal imaging technology—fluorescence lifetime imaging ophthalmoscopy (FLIO). She received a prestigious award for her work from the German Ophthalmological Society.

Sauer’s research in FLIO related to retinal carotenoids, which serve as antioxidants, connected her with Moran’s Paul S. Bernstein, MD, PhD. She accepted a visiting scholar position, helping establish Moran as the first FLIO imaging and research center in the U.S.

From 2018 until 2020, Sauer worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Bernstein’s lab, helping publish numerous FLIO studies that could revolutionize how clinicians diagnose diseases. She received the Heidelberg Engineering Xtreme Research Award in 2019.

As a resident, Sauer aims to continue establishing FLIO as a clinical diagnostic tool.

She is proud to receive the ARCS Foundation’s Mark and Kathie Miller Award, which was established in honor of Moran CEO Randall J Olson, MD.

HEED FELLOW AWARD

Wen Fan Hu, MD, PhD

Uveitis fellow Wen Fan Hu, MD, PhD, is a 2020-2021 Heed Fellow awardee.

Hu completed her residency at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and received her medical and doctorate degrees from Harvard University. The Heed Ophthalmic Foundation gives about 20 awards yearly to talented young ophthalmologists pursuing postgraduate fellowship training.

Each recipient receives a merit award of $10,000.

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH PRIZE

Resident Bradley Jacobsen, MD

Resident Bradley Jacobsen, MD, Moran’s 2017 ARCS Scholar, received a prize from the European Society of Retina Specialists (EURETINA) for research into retinal diseases in Africa.

Jacobsen’s presentation, “Characterization of ‘AMD-like’ phenotypes in two African populations from Tanzania and Ghana,” placed second for Best Free Papers as part of EURETINA 2020.