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Foundation Partnership Encourages Medical Students to Move into Retinal Research

July 11, 2011 - As part of the Foundation Fighting Blindness’ effort to foster the next generation of cutting-edge retinal degenerative researchers, the organization is partnering with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) for the second year in a row to fund fellowships for medical students to pursue related laboratory research. The medical education program is designed to encourage a greater number of medically-trained students to become physician-scientists.

The three new Foundation-funded fellows have opted to gain intensive experience in their specific research interests at top centers across the county. Rather than spending the time taking medical courses or in clinical rotations, they will work for the next year with mentors in biomedical research laboratories to investigate causes and treatment approaches for age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt disease, both retinal degenerative conditions that typically rob central vision.

“For the advancement of vision-saving treatments from the lab to the clinic, it is essential that we provide research experience for up-and-coming physicians,” says Stephen Rose, Ph.D., chief research officer at the Foundation Fighting Blindness. “Clinical research is critical to the development of treatments and cures for all diseases, and we need to provide the support incentives and training that will encourage young doctors to follow a research-oriented career path to become the next generation of rare, inherited retinal degeneration specialists who will continue to fight these sight-robbing conditions.”

As three of 72 students involved in the HHMI Medical Research Fellows Program, the Foundation-funded fellows will conduct their research at different institutions:

Fourth-year medical student Lilangi S. Ediriwickrema will study under Mentor Ron A. Adelman and Co-Mentor Lawrence J. Rizzolo at Yale University School of Medicine. The research will explore reconstruction and transplantation of an outer retina using cells derived from human embryonic stem cells.
Second-year medical student Jacob Eli Berchuck will study under Mentor Glenn Jay Jaffe at Duke University. His project involves advancing the current understanding of macular degeneration to help develop novel therapies that will prevent or limit its progression.
Second-year medical student Martin Krupa will study under Kang Zhang at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. He will evaluate induced pluripotent stem cells from people with dominant Stargardt disease to better understand how genetic defects lead to ineffective processing of fatty acids, and ultimately, retinal degeneration.

A Foundation-funded HHMI Medical Research Fellow from 2010, Sarah Brem Sunshine, has also been awarded for a second year of study under Mentor James Tahara Handa at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She’ll investigate the role of nitric oxide, which is prevalent in cigarette smoke, in the development of age-related macular degeneration.

“These programs have been shown to have a measurable impact on students’ decisions to enter a research-oriented medical career,” says Sean B. Carroll, HHMI’s vice president for science education. “We are excited to expand the fellows program by partnering with organizations that have the same goal: creating more physician scientists.”