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 2023 & 2024
55 Awards ($10,628,350)
| RPB Grant Type |
Year |
Award |
Research Area |
Awardee |
Institution |
| Career Development Award | 2024 | $350,000 | Retinal Cell Biology | Pfeiffer, Rebecca Lynne / PhD | University of Utah Health Sciences Center |
| Will advance our understanding of the connectivity of Muller cells (cells in the inner retina that have important roles in synaptic modulation, preservation, and metabolic support), which is largely unknown, and will provide the groundwork for understanding how these connections change with disease. | |||||
| Career Development Award | 2024 | $350,000 | Retina | Rossin, Elizabeth J. / MD, PhD | Harvard Medical School |
| Will expand the known genetic underpinnings of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR), an inherited vision-threatening maculopathy seen commonly by retina specialists, to understand how they affect choroidal anatomy and serum proteins in patients. | |||||
| Career Development Award | 2024 | $350,000 | Immunology, Microbiology | Walsh, James / MD, PhD | Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine |
| Will explore the role of the choroid, a vascular layer that sits outside of the blood-retina barrier, as an immunologically active area within the eye that may play a critical role in autoimmune uveitis, which is an inflammatory disease of the eye’s uvea. | |||||
| Disney Award for Amblyopia Research | 2024 | $150,000 | Amblyopia, Eye Movement Disorders, Neuro-Ophthalmology, Strabismus | Triplett, Jason / PhD | Children's National Hospital |
| Will study the molecular- and activity-dependent mechanisms underlying functional changes in the superior colliculus (a midbrain nucleus that integrates multisensory inputs to regulate head and eye movements) in amblyopia, which are currently completely unknown. | |||||
| Low Vision Research Award | 2024 | $300,000 | Retina, Visual Neuroscience, Visual Psychophysics | Dunn, Felice Audris / PhD | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Will develop more scalable, sensitive diagnostic methods for the clinical measurement of graded photoreceptor loss. | |||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2024 | $30,000 | Clinical, Epidemiologic, Glaucoma, Retina | Chen, Xindi | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Conducting research at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. | |||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2024 | $30,000 | Retina | Coral Du, Katherine | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
| Conducting research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. | |||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2024 | $30,000 | Retina, Retinal Cell Biology | Cuamatzi Castelan, Andrea S. | Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine |
| Conducting research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. | |||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2024 | $38,000 | Amblyopia, Eye Movement Disorders, Neuro-Ophthalmology, Strabismus, Visual Neuroscience | Householder, Nicholas A. | Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California |
|
Conducting research at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. *Recipient of an additional $8,000 relocation stipend. |
|||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2024 | $38,000 | Retina | Sutter, David | Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine |
|
Conducting research at Oregon Health & Science University. *Recipient of an additional $8,000 relocation stipend. |
|||||
| RPB International Research Collaborators Award | 2024 | $75,000 | Amblyopia, Eye Movement Disorders, Neuro-Ophthalmology, Strabismus | Ghasia, Fatema / MD | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of CWRU |
| Will revolutionize amblyopia care by creating an innovative AI-based approach to diagnose and assess the treatment of amblyopia, a leading cause of preventable blindness. | |||||
| Special Grant | 2024 | $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. | |||||
| Special Grant | 2024 | $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. | |||||
| Stein Innovation Award | 2024 | $300,000 | Retina | Jones, Bryan William / PhD | University of Utah Health Sciences Center |
| Will study the retinas of ground squirrels, which, during hibernation, degenerate their photoreceptors, then disassemble the synapses connecting photoreceptors from the rest of the retina. When these synapses disassemble, they look like synapses in human retinal degenerative disease such as retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration. However, when ground squirrels emerge from hibernation, they regenerate photoreceptors and reconnect synapses. | |||||
| Stein Innovation Award | 2024 | $300,000 | Visual Neuroscience | Schwartz, Gregory W. / PhD | Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine |
| Will create a new way to measure dysfunction in retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), which transmit signals that are essential for vision to the brain, by tracking RGC light responses (or “spikes”), rather than cell survival, as the primary outcome measure. | |||||
| Stein Innovation Award | 2024 | $300,000 | Retina | Sparrow, Janet R. / PhD | Columbia University Irving Medical Center |
| Patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a hereditary retinal disorder that causes progressive vision loss, often present with an aberrant pattern of increased brightness in images of blue fundus autofluorescence. The researcher will use a mouse model to determine whether the increased production of toxic molecules (bisretinoid lipofuscin), that are the source of the increased autofluorescence, contribute to disease progression in RP. | |||||
| Stein Innovation Award | 2024 | $300,000 | Physiological Optics, Retina, Visual Psychophysics | Srinivasan, Vivek / PhD | New York University Grossman School of Medicine |
| Will utilize a state-of-the-art imaging technology to measure more precisely the rod system (the photoreceptors lining the back of the eye, which are responsible for vision in low light), to identify markers for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) progression. | |||||
| Stein Innovation Award | 2024 | $300,000 | Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Genetics, Glaucoma, Molecular Biology, Systems Biology | Zode, Gulab / PhD | University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine |
| Will utilize cutting-edge techniques to deliver gene editing to the trabecular meshwork (TM), a tissue in the eye that can be damaged by mutant myocilin, leading to high intraocular pressure and a severe form of glaucoma. | |||||
| Career Advancement Award | 2023 | $150,000 | Anatomy, Glaucoma, Ocular Oncology, Pathology | Huang, Alex A. / MD, PhD | University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine |
| Will uncover the molecular pathways that are activated after glaucoma filtration surgeries and cause surgical failure, with the ultimate aim of improving glaucoma treatments. | |||||
| Career Advancement Award | 2023 | $150,000 | Pharmacology, Physiology | Kiser, Philip D. / PharmD, PhD | University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine |
| Will study the role of cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein in the metabolic pathways known as visual cycles, which generate the key light-sensitive molecule of the retina. | |||||
| Career Advancement Award | 2023 | $150,000 | Glaucoma | Segre, Ayellet V. / MSc, PhD | Harvard Medical School |
| Will integrate cell type-specific genetic regulation in the outflow pathway, retina and optic nerve head with genetic associations to uncover causal mechanisms for primary open-angle glaucoma. | |||||
| Career Development Award | 2023 | $350,000 | Retinal Cell Biology | Amamoto, Ryoji / PhD | Harvard Medical School |
| Will promote cone photoreceptor survival in Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) in order to prolong daylight color vision for all patients suffering from RP, which is caused by more than 65 different genes. | |||||
| Career Development Award | 2023 | $350,000 | Glaucoma | Liu, Katy / MD, PhD | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Will identify and characterize the genetic signatures of immune cells that regulate intraocular pressure to uncover how immune cells affect intraocular pressure in the healthy state and in glaucoma. | |||||
| Career Development Award | 2023 | $350,000 | Amblyopia, Clinical, Epidemiologic, Eye Movement Disorders, Neuro-Ophthalmology, Strabismus | Oke, Isdin / MD, MPH | Harvard Medical School |
| Will address delayed diagnosis of amblyopia, the most common cause of vision loss in children in the US, through machine learning using data from the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s IRIS® Registry. | |||||
| Career Development Award | 2023 | $350,000 | Clinical, Cornea, Epidemiologic | Redd, Travis K / MD, MPH | Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine |
| Will develop and evaluate artificial intelligence systems to automatically determine the underlying cause of infectious keratitis (or “corneal ulcer”), a major cause of blindness worldwide, using smartphone photographs and clinical history data. | |||||
| Catalyst Award for Innovative Research Approaches for Age-Related Macular Degeneration | 2023 | $300,000 | Retinal Cell Biology | Apte, Rajendra S. / MD, PhD | Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine |
| Will explore how impaired lipid transport and removal from the eye cause lipid-rich deposits (drusen) to develop in the eye in AMD. | |||||
| Catalyst Award for Innovative Research Approaches for Age-Related Macular Degeneration | 2023 | $300,000 | Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Retina | Mahajan, Vinit / MD, PhD | Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University |
| Will establish a high-resolution proteomic platform using human AMD aqueous humor biopsies, which exhibit high accessibility and minimal invasiveness compared to vitreous biopsies. | |||||
| Catalyst Award for Innovative Research Approaches for Age-Related Macular Degeneration | 2023 | $300,000 | Retina, Retinal Cell Biology | Rao, Rajesh C. / MD | The Regents of the University of Michigan School of Medicine |
| Will explore a non-coding genetic variant, which increases the risk—via unknown mechanisms—for Dry and Wet AMD by ~10-fold, and its potential effects on the expression of other genes. | |||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2023 | $38,000 | Anatomy, Ocular Oncology, Pathology | Alvarez, Osmel P. | University of Miami Miller School of Medicine |
|
Conducting research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. *Recipient of an additional $8,000 relocation stipend. |
|||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2023 | $30,000 | Biochemistry, Clinical, Epidemiologic, Molecular Biology, Retina, Retinal Cell Biology | Gomes, Isabella | Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine |
| Conducting research at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. | |||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2023 | $38,000 | Retina | Jo, Jason (Jace) | University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine & Public Health |
|
Conducting research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine & Public Health. *Recipient of an additional $8,000 relocation stipend. |
|||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2023 | $30,000 | Glaucoma | Keehn, Caroline | Baylor College of Medicine |
| Conducting research at Baylor College of Medicine. | |||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2023 | $38,000 | Immunology, Microbiology | Onyekwere, Oluomachi | Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University |
|
Conducting research at the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. *Recipient of an additional $8,000 relocation stipend. |
|||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2023 | $30,000 | Retinal Cell Biology | Shah, Madhura | Harvard Medical School |
| Conducting research at Harvard Medical School / SERI. | |||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2023 | $38,000 | Cornea | Zhang, Lyvia J. | Harvard Medical School |
|
Conducting research at Harvard Medical School / MEEI. *Recipient of an additional $8,000 relocation stipend. |
|||||
| Physician-Scientist Award | 2023 | $300,000 | Clinical, Epidemiologic | VanderBeek, Brian L. / MD, MPH, MSCE | University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine |
| Will create accurate, current national prevalence and incidence measurements of diabetic retinal disease (DRD). | |||||
| Physician-Scientist Award | 2023 | $300,000 | Cornea | Yin, Jia / MD, PhD, MPH | Harvard Medical School |
| Will explore the direct relationship between blood vessels and corneal sensory nerves, which is of high relevance in ocular tissues. | |||||
| RPB International Research Collaborators Award | 2023 | $75,000 | Retina | Tabin, Geoffrey / MD | Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University |
| Will establish a school-screening program for retinal disease among adolescents in Ghana, where patients with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) and sickle cell disease (SCD) have high rates of potentially blinding retinopathy. | |||||
| RPB International Research Collaborators Award | 2023 | $75,000 | Low Vision | Xiong, Yingzi / PhD | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Will create a standardized Orientation and Mobility (O&M) assessment tool for the large population of adults with low vision that is patient-centered, scientifically supported, and takes comorbidities into consideration. | |||||
| Stein Innovation Award | 2023 | $300,000 | Genetics, Systems Biology | Kay, Jeremy N. / PhD | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Will build an encyclopedia of retinal disease gene isoforms and their expression sites in mouse and human retina in order to provide transformative insights into pathophysiology of many inherited retinal disease (IRD)-associated genes. | |||||
| Stein Innovation Award | 2023 | $300,000 | Genetics, Systems Biology | Moraes, Carlos T. / PhD | University of Miami Miller School of Medicine |
| Will employ novel synthetic biology tools to create models and treatments for mitochondrial ophthalmological diseases. | |||||
| Career Development Award | 2023 | $350,000 | Immunology, Microbiology, Retina, Retinal Cell Biology | Maidana, Daniel E. / MD, PhD | University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine |
| Will test the hypothesis that microglia reduce photoreceptor (light sensing) cell death in acute retinal detachment and increase photoreceptor cell death in chronic retinal detachment. | |||||
| Career Development Award | 2023 | $350,000 | Retinal Cell Biology | Spencer, William J. / PhD | State University of New York Upstate Medical University |
| Will conduct a study to understand the mechanistic basis for disc (light-sensitive membrane) formation in healthy photoreceptors (light sensing cells) and determine if reducing the abnormal release of vesicles in diseased retinas could have therapeutic value. | |||||
| Career Development Award | 2023 | $350,000 | Retina | Toomey, Christopher B. / MD, PhD | University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine |
| Will study the formation of drusen (lipoprotein-rich deposits), the primary lesions of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that occur in early stages of the disease, before vision loss is detected. | |||||
| Career Development Award | 2023 | $350 | Retina, Retinal Cell Biology | Yoshimatsu, Takeshi / PhD | Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine |
| Will establish zebrafish as a model system of human macula diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), building on the recent finding that zebrafish feature a macula-like specialization in the eye. | |||||
| Disney Award for Amblyopia Research | 2023 | $100,000 | Visual Neuroscience | Fong, Ming-fai / PhD | Georgia Tech Research Corporation |
| Will conduct studies to determine whether suppressing activity in a subset of retinal cells is sufficient to promote recovery from amblyopia. | |||||
| Low Vision Research Award | 2023 | $300,000 | Neuro-Ophthalmology, Visual Psychophysics | Diaz, Gabriel J. / PhD | The Rochester Institute of Technology |
| Will study the impact of cortical blindness (CB), which includes hemianopia and quadrantanopia, on driving behavior (specifically steering) with a novel virtual reality steering task developed for this study. | |||||
| Low Vision Research Award | 2023 | $300,000 | Amblyopia, Eye Movement Disorders, Neuro-Ophthalmology, Strabismus | Liao, Yaping Joyce / MD, PhD | Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University |
| Will take the initial steps to develop the first artificial intelligence platform for fast, real-time diagnosis of visual impairment based on oculomotor recordings, which are shown to be predictive of disease. | |||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2023 | $30,000 | Anatomy, Cornea, Ocular Oncology, Pathology | Greenfield, Jason A. | University of Miami Miller School of Medicine |
| Conducting research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. | |||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2023 | $30,000 | Clinical, Epidemiologic | Murillo, Karla | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Conducting research at The Regents of the University of California, Los Angeles. | |||||
| Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship | 2023 | $30,000 | Clinical, Epidemiologic | Radgoudarzi, Niloofar | University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine |
| Conducting research at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. | |||||
| RPB International Research Collaborators Award | 2023 | $75,000 | Immunology, Microbiology | Bispo, Paulo J.M. / MS, PhD | Harvard Medical School |
| Will explore solutions to overcome the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in ophthalmology using bacteriophages (or phages), which are viruses that infect bacteria and can disrupt the bacterial cells. | |||||
| Special Grant | 2023 | $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. | |||||
| Stein Innovation Award | 2023 | $300,000 | Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Retinal Cell Biology | Handa, James T. / MD | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Will elucidate how photoreceptors (light sensing cells) and the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which are key cells that protect photoreceptors, can communicate in health and under stress through the exchange of genetic material, shedding light on potential new treatments for early AMD. | |||||
| Stein Innovation Award | 2023 | $300,000 | Glaucoma | Hu, Yang / MD, PhD | Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University |
| Will identify the most suitable gene therapy vectors to create neuroprotective treatments for glaucoma, the most common cause of irreversible blindness. | |||||
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