Virtual Zoom event
Please join us for a Scientific Forum
featuring the recipients of the Prevent Blindness, Ohio Affiliate
Young Investigator Student Fellowship Awards for Female Scholars in Vision Research
Friday, April 30, 2021
8:00 am to 9:00 am
Click below to register and you will receive the Zoom link
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIpceqvrjMsHdYa6U8xVU5pM3ui_fArbVbc
Youstina Bolok is a medical student at Northeast Ohio Medical University and conducted her
research at the Cleveland Clinic. Bolok is studying an aspect of retinopathy of prematurity that
occurs in infants, causing 200,000 cases of blindness each year world wide. In the instance of a
premature birth, high oxygen supplementation is needed to sustain life and prevent mortality
however, this can be harmful to developing tissues like the retina. ROP is a growing problem that
seems to target underrepresented poorer social strata because it accompanies poverty.
Catherine Urbano is a medical student at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and is studying a treatment regiment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) at the Cleveland Clinic, Cole Eye Institute. AMD is a leading cause of blindness in the United States. AMD is a degenerative disease of the central portion of the retina that results in central vision impairment. Urbano is studying the current standard of care for neovascular AMD and patient outcomes.
Ann Morrison, OD, MS from the Ohio State University-College of Optometry is researching a process called emmetropization that reduces the amount of farsightedness in infants, placing most infants’eyes right where they need to be in order for them to see clearly by their first birthday. However, up to 10% of infants do not emmetropize properly and end up with eyes that are shorter in length. These babies that have a higher than normal amount of farsightedness are at greater risk for developing a strabismus (eye turn) and amblyopia (lazy eye). Often, these infants keep their higher levels of farsightedness through early childhood and grade school.
