Research Roundup

Phillip Yuhas (OD/MS’14, PhD’19) has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense for his project, Restoration of Visual Function after Repeated Traumatic Brain Injury. Under this award, he will determine if inhibiting NFkB signaling in the optic nerve and retina will preserve vision after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Additionally, he will test the capacity of revascularization to enhance visual function after TBI. This work is a component of a Focused Translational Team Science Award that awarded other components to collaborators in other fields with the overall goal of addressing eye injury due to military exposure.

Walter Wu, PhD, and his College of Engineering collaborator Marco Brocanelli, PhD, have been awarded a $30,000 RAISE Spark grant. Their interdisciplinary work focuses on the accessibility challenges that visually impaired people might face when interacting with autonomous vehicle taxi services. They will obtain visually impaired people’s perspectives on possible challenges and their thoughts on solutions to those challenges.

Electra Coffman, a PhD student advised by Timothy Plageman, PhD, is the recipient of the Prevent Blindness Ohio Young Investigator Student Fellowship Award for Female Scholars in Vision Research. Her project, Revealing Target Adhesion Genes for Age-Dependent Cortical Cataract Prevention, is designed to identify which cell signaling pathways are associated with cortical cataract formation following cell adhesion loss and focuses on the Arvcf gene, which is involved in maintaining cell adhesion proteins. Her work aims to provide a targetable gene dataset for age-dependent cortical cataract prevention.

Bradley Dougherty (OD/MS’07, PhD’13) and Nick Fogt (OD’92, PhD’96), are 2025 recipients of the VSP Innovations Grant for their study, Fixation Tracking for Training and Assessment of Drivers with Vision Impairment. They will use head-mounted eye tracking technology to determine where drivers using bioptic telescopes are looking within the road scene, when they decide to use the telescope, and where it is aimed when detecting hazards. The goal is to provide those training new bioptic telescope users with objective information on which to base their lessons, filling a current gap in our knowledge of how best to support these drivers.  

Timothy Plageman, PhD, is a 2025 recipient of the VSP Innovations Grant for his project, Profiling the Shroom3-Associated Protein Complex in Outer Limiting Membrane to Elucidate Retinal Dystrophy Etiology. Dr. Plageman’s lab has discovered that the cytoskeletal protein Shroom3 plays an important post-natal developmental role of the outer limiting membrane. Disruption to the outer limiting membrane is one cause of congenital retinal dystrophies, and the mechanisms of that disruption are still poorly understood. This study seeks to further characterize the molecular components required for Shroom3 function.

Marielle Reidy (OD/MS’19), a PhD student in the vision science graduate program at The Ohio State University College of Optometry, has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Arene T. Wray Fellowship. The Arene T. Wray Fellowship was created to promote optometric research and is specifically designated for graduate students who “can do the best work in optometry.” Dr. Reidy is pursuing her PhD under the mentorship of Don Mutti, OD, PhD, to understand the mechanisms of myopia control treatments, such as multifocal contact lenses.

Jason Kovatch (’27), an OD/MS student, has been selected to receive the Barr Stiegemeier Research Award for 2025. Jason is advised by Melissa Bailey (OD/MS’01, PhD’04) and is conducting research as part of his training in the Vision Science Graduate Program. These funds will support Jason’s research to investigate multifocal contact lenses as a way to manage symptomatic patients with convergence excess. 

Support PEDIG Research

You can help answer important questions on the best ways to treat amblyopia and support The Ohio State University College of Optometry Pediatric Eye Disease Investigative Group (PEDIG) study team by referring potentially eligible children ages 3 to 12 years with unilateral amblyopia (20/40-20/200) to currently enrolling PEDIG clinical trials. Thanks to the Ohio State team’s hard work, The Ohio State University site was awarded a site engagement award, an ATS22 follow-up award, and a trailblazer award at the PEDIG Winter Study Group Meeting in Tampa in February 2025. The Ohio State site also received a perfect quality index score on their site report card. Studies provide glasses, treatment, and follow-up visits for eligible children. Please contact Marjean Kulp (OD’91, MS’93) at kulp.6@osu.edu with any questions.

Please help the Ohio State PEDIG clinical site keep up the good work by referring potentially eligible children! Current studies are investigating:

1. If treating amblyopia with glasses and patching at the same time improves vision as well as treating amblyopia first with glasses and then with patching, if needed (ages 3 to 12 years, unilateral amblyopia associated with anisometropia and/or strabismus, no prior treatment including glasses);
2. If dichoptic therapy using Luminopia is non-inferior to patching (ages 4 to 7 years, amblyopia associated with anisometropia and/or strabismus ≤5 PD; wearing refractive correction); and
3. If dichoptic therapy using Luminopia is superior to glasses alone and if dichoptic therapy using Vivid Vision is superior to glasses alone (ages 8 to 12 years, amblyopia associated with anisometropia and/or strabismus ≤5 PD.