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Research to Prevent Blindness

Grants Database

Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) provides grants to high-performing U.S.-based departments of ophthalmology and to their high-potential investigators. Use our Grants Database to learn more. Award amounts for some grants are distributed over multiple years.

How to use the Grants Database

Refine your search by using the filter at left. Search by setting a date range, or filter your results by institution, research area keyword, or awardee.  Sort the table by clicking on any column header.  

Learn about an institution or individual by clicking on a name.

Learn about RPB-supported work by clicking on the text link "Research funded by this award," which will take you to our Research Database where you can refine and/or expand a search for published studies. (Note: In some cases this link will not be available because a researcher may have only recently received an award and has yet to publish findings.)

RPB Grant Awards from 2021 & 2022

68 Awards ($13,469,000)

RPB Grant Type
 Year
 Award
 Research Area
 Awardee
 Institution
Career Advancement Award 2022 $150,000 Visual Neuroscience Hoon, Mrinalini / PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine & Public Health
Will study the molecular interactions that underlie visual function in the retina using the well-characterized dim-light pathway in the mouse retina.
Career Advancement Award 2022 $150,000 Cornea Myung, David / MD, PhD Stanford University School of Medicine
Will develop a new way to deliver healthy endothelial cells to patients with corneal cell loss through an innovative technology known as bio-inkjet printing.
Career Advancement Award 2022 $150,000 Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Pharmacology, Physiology Yang, Tingting / PhD Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
Will study two specific proteins that have critical roles in the eye (related to generating a vision-related electrical signal and determining intraocular pressure) in order to learn how these proteins regulate cells in a physiological context.
Career Development Award 2022 $350,000 Glaucoma Chang, Kun-Che / PhD University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Will study retinal ganglion cell (RGC) and optic nerve degeneration—factors that result in permanent loss of vision in patients with glaucoma and other optic neuropathies—in order to identify the factors involved in RGC development.
Career Development Award 2022 $350,000 Cornea Dohlman, Thomas / MD Harvard Medical School
Will investigate how the immune system in children rejects corneal transplants, an area of fundamental importance that has not been explored before.
Career Development Award 2022 $350,000 Retina Telias, Michael / PhD University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry
Will investigate a long-lasting treatment for preservation of residual vision in patients suffering from retinal degeneration based on blocking a specific target receptor for inner retinal neurons.
Career Development Award 2022 $350,000 Glaucoma Tseng, Victoria L. / MD, PhD University of California, Los Angeles
Will test the hypothesis that the occurrence and outcomes of neovascular glaucoma—a devastating and potentially blinding condition—are closely linked to an individual’s social, economic, and demographic background.
Catalyst Award for Innovative Research Approaches for Age-Related Macular Degeneration 2022 $300,000 AMD, Diabetic Retinopathy Ghosh, Kaustabh / PhD University of California, Los Angeles
Will study how the blood vessels in the outer retina (choroidal vessels) degenerate early on in age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Catalyst Award for Innovative Research Approaches for Age-Related Macular Degeneration 2022 $300,000 AMD Jia, Yali / PhD Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine
Will develop a new, ultra-high-speed imaging platform based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) that will enable localized measures of neurovascular coupling—the mechanism that links neural activity to subsequent changes in cerebral blood flow.
Catalyst Award for Innovative Research Approaches for Age-Related Macular Degeneration 2022 $300,000 AMD, Retinitis Pigmentosa Punzo, Claudio / PhD University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
Will develop a new small molecule approach to treating wet AMD, the advanced form of the disease in which blood vessels in the eye leak into the macula, which provides central vision.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2022 $30,000 Immunology, Microbiology, Retina Chan, Kyle S. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Conducting research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2022 $30,000 Pharmacology, Physiology Clinger, Owen D. University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Conducting research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2022 $30,000 Retina Noorani, Soha Duke University School of Medicine
Conducting research at Duke University School of Medicine.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2022 $30,000 Clinical, Epidemiologic, Glaucoma Paul, Megan E. University of California, Los Angeles
Conducting research at The Regents of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2022 $30,000 Biochemistry, Molecular Biology Price, Cherrell Harvard Medical School
Conducting research at Harvard Medical School / MEEI.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2022 $30,000 Anatomy, Ocular Oncology, Pathology Sirivolu, Shreya Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
Conducting research at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
Physician-Scientist Award 2022 $300,000 Cornea, Epidemiologic, Imaging Kuo, Anthony / MD Duke University School of Medicine
Will extend the capabilities of a previously developed imaging system that can provide robotically aligned optical coherence tomography (RAOCT) for semi-automated retinal imaging of patients.
Physician-Scientist Award 2022 $300,000 Cornea Soiberman, Uri / MD Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Will develop the first topical medical treatment (eye drops) for keratoconus—a progressive disease that causes bulging of the cornea and blurry vision.
RPB International Research Collaborators Award 2022 $75,000 Retina Kefalov, Vladimir J. / PhD University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine
Will determine the molecular mechanism by which the G90D and G90V rhodopsin mutations cause night blindness and retinal degeneration, respectively.
RPB International Research Collaborators Award 2022 $75,000 Glaucoma Wang, Mengyu / PhD Harvard Medical School
Will create personalized profile norms based on individual retinal anatomy to improve glaucoma diagnostic accuracy.
Special Grant 2022 $34,000 The Heed Ophthalmic Foundation
Residents Retreat, 2023 and 2024. Encourage and facilitate talented residents to pursue a career in academic ophthalmology.
Stein Innovation Award 2022 $300,000 Retinal Cell Biology Barnstable, Colin J. / DPhil Pennyslvania State University College of Medicine
Will use epigenetic modifiers to alter patterns of gene expression in ways that promote photoreceptor cell survival, which is necessary for vision, and which is disrupted in diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and dry AMD.
Stein Innovation Award 2022 $300,000 Biochemistry, Genetics, Molecular Biology, Pharmacology, Physiology, Retinal Cell Biology, Visual Neuroscience Martemyanov, Kirill / PhD University of Florida Scripps Biomedical Research
Will define and study photoreceptor G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), using a range of techniques, to enhance our understanding of how these cells function to detect light and transmit it to the brain.
Career Development Award 2022 $350,000 Retina Hyde, Robert A. / MD, PhD University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
Will study retinitis pigmentosa (RP)—one of the most common, and blinding, inherited retinal degenerations—to examine how the cells that transmit visual information to the brain, which are in close proximity to the RP-affected light-sensitive cells, change as the disease progresses.
Career Development Award 2022 $350,000 Glaucoma, Visual Neuroscience Liu, Wendy / MD, PhD Stanford University School of Medicine
Will explore the role of specific genes in sensing intraocular pressure (a known risk factor for glaucoma) and mediating retinal ganglion cells, the cells that are lost during the course of glaucoma.
Career Development Award 2022 $350,000 Cornea, Pharmacology, Physiology Pasricha, Neel / MD University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Will advance novel therapeutics for dry eye disease—a common and sometimes painful disease of the ocular surface—by promoting tear fluid secretion by targeting ion transport proteins on epithelial cells lining the ocular surface.
Career Development Award 2022 $350,000 Glaucoma, Immunology, Molecular Biology Prasov, Lev / MD, PhD The Regents of the University of Michigan School of Medicine
Will study a specific gene, identified by studying a rare genetic disorder, that leads to glaucoma (as well as skin, blood vessel and joint disease) when the gene is altered.
Disney Award for Amblyopia Research 2022 $100,000 Amblyopia, Neuro-Ophthalmology, Physiological Optics, Strabismus, Visual Psychophysics Li, Roger Wing-Hong / BSC (Optom), PhD Nova Southeastern University
Will build upon the researcher’s previous work developing a novel binocular treatment for adult patients with amblyopia (commonly called lazy eye) using three-dimensional (3D) video games; the researcher will now focus on establishing a protocol for treating children with amblyopia.
Low Vision Research Award 2022 $300,000 Eye Movements, Neuro-Ophthalmology, Physiological Optics, Visual Psychophysics Dagnelie, Gislin / PhD Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Stroke patients can lose vision in the left or right half of the visual field, in either eye; this research will provide new knowledge about the mechanisms of visual adaptation in patients who lost vision in this manner.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2022 $30,000 Clinical, Cornea, Epidemiologic Cao, Binh University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Conducting research at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2022 $30,000 Retina, Retinal Cell Biology Diaz-Aguilar, Monica Sophia Stanford University School of Medicine
Conducting research at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2022 $30,000 Retina Lohss, Maxwell B. University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Conducting research at the University of Pittsburgh.
Special Grant 2022 $125,000 Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology
AUPO is a key ally in RPB's commitment to enrich the development of the Chairs, Directors of Research, and other leaders from departments of ophthalmology.
Special Grant 2022 $280,000 American Academy of Ophthalmology
Award given in partnership with the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). Designed to enable researchers to use AAO’s IRIS Registry—the nation’s first and largest comprehensive eye disease clinical registry—to conduct population-based studies in ophthalmology and blindness prevention.
Stein Innovation Award 2022 $300,000 Cornea de Paiva, Cintia S. / MD, PhD Baylor College of Medicine
Will investigate specific receptors for cytokines (chemical messengers that take information between cells) located in the corneal epithelium to determine if they are functional and, if so, if they promote corneal health.
Career Advancement Award 2021 $150,000 Retinal Cell Biology Rao, Rajesh C. / MD The Regents of the University of Michigan School of Medicine
Will investigate the role of specific gene (METTL3)-driven pathways in retinal development by investigating their ability to modify ribonucleic acid (RNA) as well as control gene expression during pluripotent stem cell (PSC) retinal differentiation.
Career Advancement Award 2021 $150,000 Immunology, Microbiology, Retina, Retinal Cell Biology Schallek, Jesse / PhD University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry
Will image and identify specific kinds of immune cells inside the living eye for the first time using a state-of-the-art eye camera developed in the researcher’s lab, combined with time-lapse imaging.
Career Advancement Award 2021 $150,000 Visual Neuroscience Van Hook, Matthew / PhD University of Nebraska Medical Center
Will test the hypothesis that microglia, the immune cells of the central nervous system, are responsible for degeneration of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) outputs to the brain in glaucoma.
Career Development Award 2021 $350,000 Retina Liu, Tin Yan Alvin / MD Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Will use deep learning techniques, a form of artificial intelligence, in optical coherence tomography (OCT) analysis to improve management of patients with age-related macular degeneration.
Career Development Award 2021 $350,000 Retina, Retinal Cell Biology, Visual Neuroscience Peng, Yi-Rong / PhD University of California, Los Angeles
Will decipher how cells become specialized in an area of the human retina called the fovea, which enables highly detailed, “high-acuity,” vision that is essential for reading, driving and recognizing faces.
Career Development Award 2021 $350,000 Retina Ruzycki, Philip / PhD Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine
Will further his previous research on retinal cells (which have neurons that cannot be regenerated and the loss of which is associated with major eye diseases like age-related macular degeneration), which discovered that these cells utilize a novel feedback loop to link cell metabolism with gene expression.
Career Development Award 2021 $350,000 Glaucoma Zebardast, Nazlee / MD, MSc Harvard Medical School
Will use cutting-edge statistical genetics and machine learning approaches to assess the influence of background genetic risk on glaucoma progression.
Catalyst Award for Innovative Research Approaches for Age-Related Macular Degeneration 2021 $300,000 AMD Zhang, Yuhua / PhD University of California, Los Angeles
Will develop advanced retinal imaging technology and objective functional biomarkers for assessing risk for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) progression.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2021 $30,000 Clinical, Epidemiologic, Glaucoma Delavar, Arash / MPH University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine
Conduction research at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2021 $30,000 Neurodegeneration, Retina Pant, Praruj Duke University School of Medicine
Conducting Research at Duke University School of Medicine.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2021 $30,000 Glaucoma Saleem, Meher University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Conducting research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Physician-Scientist Award 2021 $300,000 Clinical, Cornea, Epidemiologic, Immunology, Microbiology Doan, Thuy / MD, PhD University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Will determine if metagenomic deep sequencing (MDS), a previously developed technology for correctly diagnosing eye infection and inflammation, improves clinical outcomes for patients with eye infections.
Physician-Scientist Award 2021 $300,000 Glaucoma Newman-Casey, Paula Anne / MD, MS The Regents of the University of Michigan School of Medicine
Will aim to lessen the rate of prescription eye drop non-compliance for glaucoma patients (currently affecting 40% of glaucoma patients) by quantitatively measuring whether drops are successfully instilled, monitoring medication use, communicating usage data to the patient’s health care team, and coaching patients on improving their eye drop medication success.
Physician-Scientist Award 2021 $150,000 Anatomy, Ocular Oncology, Pathology Rajaii, Fatemeh / MD, PhD Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Will develop a therapy, an injectable IGF-1R inhibitor, for thyroid eye disease (TED) to inhibit the development of fat and muscle cells in orbital fibroblasts, which plays a role in TED development according to prior research.
RPB International Research Collaborators Award 2021 $75,000 Retinal Cell Biology DeVries, Steven H. / MD, PhD Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Will establish a rubric for evaluating cone photoreceptors in 3D retinal organoids with respect to the maturity and/or deficits in their synaptic connections and potentially identify ways to improve those connections.
Special Grant 2021 $60,000 The Heed Ophthalmic Foundation
Funding well-qualified under-represented minority (URM) candidates in academic ophthalmology in The Heed Fellowship Program.
Special Grant 2021 $100,000 National Academy of Sciences
Funding an initiative focusing on the global myopia pandemic.
Stein Innovation Award 2021 $300,000 Cell Biology, Development, Retinal Cell Biology Daneman, Richard / PhD University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine
Will utilize a novel mouse model of retinal fibrosis (a condition that can develop after retinal neovascular disorders are treated with VEGF therapies) to understand the cellular and molecular origin of retinal fibrosis.
Stein Innovation Award 2021 $300,000 Cell Biology, Development Kolodkin, Alex L. / PhD Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Will conduct research to understand how the visual system perceives motion, and how certain genetic mutations in people may affect this function.
Career Development Award 2021 $350,000 Clinical, Epidemiologic, Retina Cai, Cindy X. / MD Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Will use statistical modeling to predict lapses in diabetic retinopathy (DR) care based on social determinants of health (including both patient and healthcare system factors).
Career Development Award 2021 $350,000 Retina, Retinal Cell Biology Kim, Tyson N. / MD, PhD University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Will explore the developmental and molecular mechanisms of chorioretinal anastomoses (abnormal connections between retinal and choroidal circulation) in neovascular age-related macular degeneration, which is a disease that responds poorly to gold-standard anti-VEGF treatments and is a leading cause of blindness.
Career Development Award 2021 $350,000 AMD Ratnapriya, Rinki / PhD Baylor College of Medicine
Will apply genomic approaches to characterize age-related macular degeneration (AMD) risk variants that were identified via previous genome-wide association studies.
Disney Award for Amblyopia Research 2021 $100,000 Visual Neuroscience Bear, Mark F. / PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Will undertake a pilot animal trial to assess the safety and efficacy of injecting tedrodotoxin (TTX), a nerve poison, into the “normal” eye to block activity and thereby allow development of the amblyopic eye through increased usage.
Disney Award for Amblyopia Research 2021 $100,000 Amblyopia, Neuro-Ophthalmology, Strabismus Roberts, Tawna / OD, PhD Stanford University School of Medicine
Will study the development of amblyopia in children, probing both early, lower processing (edge detection) and higher-level cortical processing (motion discrimination), to examine how defects in higher-level vision depend on lower-level defects.
Low Vision Research Award 2021 $300,000 Low Vision Woods, Russell L. / PhD, BOptom Harvard Medical School
Will study the ability of some people with central visual impairments to use other areas of their retina for visual analysis.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2021 $30,000 Anatomy, Ocular Oncology, Pathology Kaler, Christopher University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Conducting research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2021 $30,000 Clinical, Epidemiologic, Retina Richardson, Quintin University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Conducting research at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine.
Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship 2021 $30,000 Retinal Cell Biology Singuri, Srinidhi Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of CWRU
Conducting research at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University.
Special Grant 2021 $20,000 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
Continuation support of the EyeFind Research Grant Program.
Special Grant 2021 $175,000 Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology
AUPO is a key ally in RPB's commitment to enrich the development of the Chairs, Directors of Research, and other leaders from departments of ophthalmology.
Stein Innovation Award 2021 $300,000 Biochemistry, Molecular Biology Chen, Shiming / PhD Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine
Proposes to create a mechanism to track Caspases-3/7 cells, which are involved in the cellular death cycle that gets activated during retinal degeneration, a leading cause of blindness with no cure.
Stein Innovation Award 2021 $300,000 Glaucoma Sigal, Ian A. / PhD University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Will develop a novel therapeutic approach to glaucoma based on altering the mechanical properties of the lamina cribrosa, a structure of the eye where retinal ganglion cell axons, which carry visual information to the brain, exit the eye.
Stein Innovation Award 2021 $300,000 Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Pharmacology, Physiology Travis, Gabriel H. / MD David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles
Will create a new zebrafish model for Stargardt disease, the most commonly inherited single-gene retinal disease, in order to assess the role of the gene’s encoded protein on photoreceptor function, which is essential for sight.

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