First Six Grant Recipients Announced - The Shaffer Fund For Innovative Glaucoma Research

Main Category: Eye Health / Blindness
Article Date: 31 Jan 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Recipients of the first six grants from the new Shaffer Fund for Innovative Glaucoma Research were announced at Glaucoma Research Foundation's 30th Anniversary Benefit. The Shaffer Grants expand Glaucoma Research Foundation's longstanding commitment to one-year incubation grants. Additionally, Mark Filla PhD (University of Wisconsin, Madison) was named as the inaugural recipient of the new Shaffer Prize for Innovative Science, as a result of recent research funded by the Glaucoma Research Foundation (GRF).

"In August, 2007, we all mourned the loss of Dr. Robert N. Shaffer, one of the nation's great pioneering glaucoma physicians," said GRF President and CEO Thomas M. Brunner. "In 1978, Dr. Shaffer co-founded the Glaucoma Research Foundation with Drs. H. Dunbar Hoskins Jr. and John Hetherington, to seek better treatment options for glaucoma patients."

In 1993, GRF launched its Pilot Project Grants program, offering one-year research grants to explore novel or promising ideas in the study of glaucoma. Altogether, more than 120 Pilot Project grants have been awarded, producing more than 100 peer-reviewed papers published in scientific journals.

With the passing of Dr. Robert Shaffer and the desire to permanently imbue his founding spirit of serving glaucoma patients, the GRF Board of Directors has renamed the Pilot Project grants "The Shaffer Fund for Innovative Glaucoma Research." First recipients of the new Shaffer Grants are:

- Paul Habib Artes, PhD, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada - "Analysis of Progression in Glaucoma"

- Jamie Craig, PhD, Flinders University of South Australia - "Genome-wide association in Primary Open Angle Glaucoma: The Blindness in Glaucoma Genetic Epidemiology Relative Risk Study"

- Brad Fortune, OD, PhD, Devers Eye Institute, Portland, OR - "Imaging the course of axonal degeneration in experimental glaucoma"

- Kate E. Keller, PhD, Casey Eye Institute, Portland, OR - "RNAi gene silencing of enzymes in the glycosaminoglycan biosynthetic pathway"

- Raquel L. Lieberman, PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA - "Development of pharmacological chaperone therapy for inherited primary and juvenile open angle glaucoma"

- Yutao Liu, MD, PhD, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC - "Investigation of gene copy number variants in primary open-angle glaucoma."

The Shaffer Prize for Innovative Science

The memory of Dr. Shaffer was further reinforced by creating "The Shaffer Prize for Innovative Science," to be selected annually by the GRF Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC).

Mark Filla, PhD (University of Wisconsin - Madison) was selected by the GRF SAC to receive the first Shaffer Prize for Innovative Science, based on the results of his research funded by a Pilot Project grant awarded in January 2006. "Dr. Filla's work examined the ability of specific cell surface receptors to cause rearrangements in the intracellular skeletal system of the cells that regulate aqueous humor outflow from the eye," explained SAC Chair, George Cioffi, MD, Director Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of the Devers Eye Center in Portland.

The results of Filla's research, Cioffi said, were selected for publication in the July 2006 edition of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, and point the way to possible new therapies less likely to elicit side effects. Results from Dr. Filla's Pilot Project led to grants from the National Institutes of Health, and the National Eye Institute, enabling Filla to continue this valuable research, Cioffi said.

In addition to Cioffi, members of the Scientific Advisory Committee selecting the grantees and naming the Shaffer Prize winner are: Balwantray Chauhan PhD, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia; Anne Coleman, MD, PhD, Jules Stein Eye Institute, Los Angeles; Christopher Girkin, MD, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Sayoko Eileen Moroi, MD, PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Harry Quigley, MD, Wilmer Eye Institute, Baltimore; Joel Schuman, MD, University of Pittsburgh; Ernst Tamm MD, University of Regensburg, Germany; Douglas Vollrath MD, PhD, Stanford University; Arthur Weber, PhD, Michigan State University, East Lansing; Robert Weinreb, MD, University of California, San Diego; and Janey Wiggs, MD, PhD, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston.

About The Glaucoma Research Foundation

Glaucoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness. Founded in 1978 in San Francisco, the Glaucoma Research Foundation works to prevent vision loss from glaucoma by investing in innovative research, education, and support with the ultimate goal of finding a cure.

Glaucoma Research Foundation