About Us » FFB Funded Researchers
Jeffrey H. Boatright, Ph.D.
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Jeffrey H. Boatright, Ph.D. joined the faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology of Emory University School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in September 1999. He is currently an Associate Professor and serves as the Director and Principle Investigator (PI) of the Katz Foundation Retinal Degenerations Research Center at Emory University and the Director of the Redmond-Firman Center for Glaucoma Research at Emory University. Dr. Boatright uses molecular and cellular biology techniques to study endogenous DNA repair mechanisms with the goal of harnessing such mechanisms to repair genomic DNA mutations that lead to blindness. An R01 grant from The National Eye Institute (NEI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supports this work. In a second major project, Dr. Boatright uses in vivo pharmacological approaches to explore the effects of hydrophilic bile acids and other atypical, endogenous compounds on animal models of retinal degeneration and glaucoma. An Individual Investigator Research Grant from the Foundation Fighting Blindness, a Veterans Administration (VA) Merit Award, a pilot grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM, NIH), and support from the Katz Foundation fund this work. In a third project, Dr. Boatright and colleagues are exploring new ways to deliver therapeutic compounds to the retina and other posterior eye structures. This work is supported by an NEI R24 Multicenter Grant. Dr. Boatright is the founding and current Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Vision, a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the dissemination of research results in molecular biology, cell biology, and the genetics of the visual system. The journal ranks second in a field of 14 competing journals and is routinely used as an Open Access exemplar by the National Library of Medicine and The National Institutes of Health Library. The journal has won numerous awards and is supported by Knights Templar and through initiatives generated in the Department of Ophthalmology of Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Boatright is the Principle Investigator for an NEI R01 grant, Director and PI of an Individual Investigator Research Grant from FFB, module Co-Director for an NEI Core Grant, Co-PI for a VA Merit Award, module Co-Director for an NEI R24 Multicenter Grant, and recipient of numerous smaller grants and awards. He is a Trustee of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), the premier professional society in his field. He chairs and sits on several departmental, institutional, professional society, and national grant review committees. He is an active member of the Board of the Georgia Affiliate of the FFB, who selected him as Scientific Research Honoree for 2007. Dr. Boatright is a graduate of Brown University (Sc.B. in Neural Sciences and Experimental Psychology) and Emory University (Ph.D. in Pharmacology and the Neurosciences Training Program). His post-doctoral fellowship was in the laboratory of Dr. John Nickerson at Emory University, and was supported by an NEI F32 National Research Service Award. His initial independent research was in photoreceptor-specific gene regulation, a project supported by an NEI R01, for which he served as PI, and by an FFB center grant. |
