NIH R01 GRANTS
Alumni Highlights Encouraged by the mentorship they received during their training, three Kellogg Eye Center graduates have gone on to impressive positions at top institutions throughout the United States. Steven E. Brooks, M.D. (Fellowship,
1992-1993), recently become the William S. Hagler Professor of Ophthalmology and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Medical College of Georgia, the academic Steven Abcouwer, Ph.D.
Patrice Fort, Ph.D.
health sciences center for the University of Georgia.
Breakthrough Discoveries in Diabetic Retinopathy
Prior to accepting this role, he
was the Anne S. Cohen Professor of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Chief of Pediatric Ophthalmology at Columbia University Medical Center and the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York.
Steven Abcouwer, Ph.D., and Patrice Fort, Ph.D., were
awarded an R01 grant by the NIH for their studies of novel
ophthalmology and adult strabismus. He is a national leader
aspects of retinal physiology and function that are important
in the field of complex strabismus, strabismus surgery,
in the early retinal changes caused by diabetes. Their team’s
pediatric ophthalmology and retinopathy of prematurity
studies examine how and why ganglion cells — the retinal
(ROP). An excellent clinician and physician scientist, he
neurons that send vision signals to the brain — exhibit a very
has made a number of important contributions to the field,
high rate of protein synthesis, and how and why this is negatively affected by diabetes.
An early manifestation of diabetic retinopathy is called
diabetic retinal neuropathy, which damages and causes the slow death of ganglion cells. It has long been known that the retinal neurons that detect light, called photoreceptors, exhibit a high metabolism including rapid production of proteins. “However, until our recent work, it was unknown that the rate of protein production is even higher in the ganglion cells,” says Dr. Abcouwer. “We also demonstrated that reduction of this rate of protein synthesis in ganglion cells is an early indicator of the effect of diabetes, which may explain why these cells are damaged in diabetes.”
These studies by Dr. Abcouwer and Dr. Fort and their
research team are expected to significantly augment knowledge of retinal physiology and lead to treatments that will both prevent diabetic retinal neuropathy and reduce the risk of diabetic retinopathy.
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Dr. Brooks’ clinical focus is on all aspects of pediatric
including his work on fat adherence syndrome and his description of a new modification for muscle transposition surgery in the field of strabismus.
“I was a fellow in pediatric ophthalmology and
strabismus with Dr. Monte Del Monte and Dr. Steven Archer in 1992-93. The fellowship training I received at Kellogg was second to none and I hope, in return, that I have made my mentors proud.”
