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Nearly $1 Million in Grants Affirms Commitment to Innovative Research
January is Glaucoma Awareness Month; Four Laboratories in Catalyst For a Cure Begin Phase II; Incubator Grants Fund Six Pilot Projects
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (January 4, 2005) — Grants totally nearly $1 million were awarded this month by the Glaucoma Research Foundation, officially launching the second three-year cycle of its innovative Catalyst For a Cure (CFC) collaboration of laboratories at Johns Hopkins University, Universities of Utah and Washington, and Vanderbilt; and funding six Pilot Projects at Cambridge University, Johns Hopkins University, W. K. Kellogg Eye Center, and the Universities of Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin.
“There is no more pro-active way we can observe January as Glaucoma Awareness Month,” said President and CEO Thomas M. Brunner, “than by providing funds to ensure that cutting-edge research to improve treatment and potentially find a cure can continue. We are most grateful to our Board members and donors, whose contributions to GRF makes these grants possible.”
CFC Grants of $192,500 each were awarded to the laboratories of David Calkins, PhD (Vanderbilt University Medical Center), Philip J. Horner (University of Washington), Nicholas Marsh-Armstrong, PhD (Johns Hopkins University Medical School), and Monica L. Vetter, PhD (University of Utah).
Pilot Grant awardees included $35,000 to David S. Friedman, MD, MPH (Wilmer Eye Institute) to study genetics of glaucoma in African-American populations where the risk is four times as high as for white populations; $32,000 to Markus H. Kuehn, PhD (University of Iowa) to study spontaneously occurring congenital glaucoma; $35,000 to Keith R. G. Martin, MD, MRCP (Centre of Brain Repair, Cambridge University) to study stem cell therapy; $32,000 to Sayoko E. Moroi, MD, PhD (Kellogg Eye Center) to study individual response to medications; Robert W. Nickells, PhD (University of Wisconsin) to study the relationship of ganglion cell death and elevated intraocular pressure; and $32,000 to Hemant Pawar, PhD (University of Michigan), to map genes that cause secondary angle-closure.
The collaborating investigators in CFC came together with the conviction that there could be new horizons opened by research in the burgeoning fields of neuroscience and genetics. During its inaugural three-year Phase I, CFC scientists developed a series of experiments to improve the understanding of the development and function of the retina, identified the underlying genetic mechanisms that cause the death of the retinal cells and pinpointed specific genes that play a decisive role.
“With its start-up three-year phase now completed” reports GRF President and CEO Thomas M. Brunnner, “CFC has made news not just for its scientific breakthroughs, but also for showing how a collaborative process can accelerate good science, proving that laboratories with a strategic balance of expertise around the country can work together, virtually on a daily basis. The promise couldn’t be greater as we begin the next three-year phase.”
Goals for Phase II include targeting suspected “culprit” genes, altering their genetic character to determine whether vision loss is stopped and testing drugs that modify gene action to see if vision is preserved.
“Pilot Project Grants are designed to fund initial studies that address an especially novel idea or determine the feasibility of a larger scale project, “ explained Brunner. “Grants that address new, untested ideas are frequently not competitive for large public sector grants until preliminary studies indicate that the project is likely to be successful. Our Pilot Project Grants provides this bridge, and often enable the investigators to qualify for these larger funds.”
The Scientific Advisory Board for the CFC program is chaired by Moses V. Chao, PhD, New York University, and includes Jack P. Antel, MD, Montreal Neurological Institute; Constance L. Cepko, PhD, Harvard Medical School; Eugene M. Johnson, PhD, Washington University; Martin Raff, MD, PhD, University College London; Dennis D. M. O’Leary, PhD, Salk Institute; Martin B. Wax, MD, Alcon Laboratories.
The Scientific Advisory Committee overseeing the Pilot Projects is chaired by George Cioffi, MD, Discoveries in Sight, Portland; and includes Balwantray Chauhan PhD, Dalhousie University; Anne Coleman MD, PhD, Jules Stein Eye Institute; Harry Quigley, MD, Wilmer Eye Institute; Sayoko Eileen Moroi, MD, PhD, University of Michigan; John C. Morrison, MD, Casey Eye Institute; Ernst Tamm, MD, University of Regensburg; Douglas E. Vollrath, MD, PhD, Stanford University; Arthur Weber, PhD, Michigan State University; Robert N. Weinreb, MD, University of California San Diego; Janey L. Wiggs, MD, PhD, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.