About Us » FFB Funded Researchers
Robert Anderson, M.D., Ph.D.
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Robert Eugene Anderson, M.D., Ph.D. holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Ophthalmology, Cell Biology, Geriatrics, and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He is the Dean McGee Professor of Ophthalmology, George Lynn Cross Research Professor, and Director of Research in the Department of Ophthalmology and the Dean McGee Eye Institute. Dr. Anderson received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry (1968) from Texas A&M University and his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine (1975). In 1968, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Oak Ridge Associated Universities. At Baylor, he was appointed Assistant Professor in 1969, Associate Professor in 1976, and Professor in 1981. He joined the faculty of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in January of 1995. He served as director of the Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience from 1995-1999 and chairman of the Department of Cell Biology from 1998-2007. Dr. Anderson has published extensively in the areas of lipid metabolism in the retina and biochemistry of retinal degenerations. He has edited 13 books, 12 on retinal degenerations and one on the biochemistry of the eye. Dr. Anderson has received numerous awards, including the Sam and Bertha Brochstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in Retina Research from the Retina Research Foundation (1980), and the Dolly Green Award (1982) and two Senior Scientific Investigator Awards (1990 and 1997) from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc. He received an Award for Outstanding Contributions to Vision Research from the Alcon Research Institute (1985), and the Marjorie Margolin Prize (1994). He has served on the editorial boards of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Journal of Neuroscience Research, Neurochemistry International, Current Eye Research, and Experimental Eye Research. Dr. Anderson has received grants from the National Institutes of Health, The Retina Research Foundation, the Foundation Fighting Blindness, and Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc. He is currently PI on 2 R01 grants from the National Eye Institute now in their 27th and 37th years of continuous funding. In addition, he is PI on 3 center grants (P20 COBRE from NCRR, P30 Vision Center from NEI, and FFB Southwest Center-Without-Walls). Over his career, Dr. Anderson has generated over $55,000,000 in research grants and contracts. Notable discoveries from Dr. Anderson’s laboratory include: 1) First demonstration of the essentiality of omega-3 fatty acids in retinal function, 2) The role of the phosphoinositide cascade in phototransduction in the invertebrate retina, 3) The role of the insulin receptor/PI 3-kinase/Akt pathway in stress-induced retinal degenerations, 4) The role of oxidant stress in light-induced apoptosis of photoreceptor cells, and 5) The identification of the biosynthetic step catalyzed by the ELOVL4 protein, which is mutated in Stargardt-3 macular degeneration. Dr. Anderson has been an active participant on the program committees of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and was a trustee representing the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology section. He has served on the Vision Research Program Committee and Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Eye Institute and the Board of the Basic and Clinical Science Series of The American Academy of Ophthalmology. Dr. Anderson is a past Councilor, Treasurer, and President of the International Society for Eye Research. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the Scientific Advisory Panel of Research to Prevent Blindness. |
