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Shaffer Fund for Innovative Glaucoma Research: First Six Grants Awarded

Recipients of the first six grants from the new Shaffer Fund for Innovative Glaucoma Research were announced January 23, 2008 at Glaucoma Research Foundation’s 30th Anniversary Benefit. The Shaffer Grants continue the Glaucoma Research Foundation’s longstanding commitment to one year incubation grants to explore novel or promising ideas in the study of glaucoma.

To date, GRF has awarded more than 120 Pilot Project grants. GRF awarded the 2008 Shaffer Fund research grants at $40,000 each to:

  • 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.”

To read more about these grants, please visit our Shaffer Fund web page.

2008 Shaffer Prize Awarded

Mark Filla, PhD

Mark Filla, PhD (University of Wisconsin – Madison) was selected by the GRF Scientific Advisory Committee to receive the first annual Shaffer Prize for Innovative Science based on the results of his research funded by a 2006 Pilot Project. Dr. Filla’s research points the way to possible new therapies less likely to elicit side effects. His research results were selected for publication in the July 2006 edition of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

This article appeared in the May 2008 issue of Gleams. Subscribe

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