The National Eye Institute (NEI) has 格兰特ed 约翰一. 莫兰眼科中心的外科医生兼科学家 利亚的. 欧文，医学博士，博士, a prestigious career development award to support her innovative 研究 into a blinding eye disease affecting premature 婴儿s.
Owen is among an elite group nationwide selected for the National Institutes of Health’s Mentored Clinical Scientist 研究 Career Development Award, which provides funding and protected time for an "intensive, 研究 career development experience."
Owen and her team at Moran will use the $500,000 格兰特 over three years to study why many preterm 婴儿s develop 早产儿视网膜病变（ROP） and how to prevent this leading cause of childhood blindness.
具体地说, Owen’s lab has been exploring how preeclampsia, 危险的妊娠并发症, may protect preterm 婴儿s from developing ROP. Her multi-faceted 研究 approach will identify molecular and genetic factors in the mother, 婴儿, 和胎盘, which contribute to this ROP protection. The integration of these traditionally separate areas of study is challenging and has not previously been done.
"We are so thrilled as this award will really help move our work forward,”欧文说。. "If we can learn how these babies are naturally ‘protected’ from ROP, then we can develop interventions to prevent rather than mitigate ROP disease."
Creating a Team with Wide-Ranging Expertise
As part of the award, Owen will work closely with three international experts:
- 凯萨琳B. 马里兰州Digre, Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Ophthalmology at the 莫兰眼科中心 and adjunct professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology who also serves as the director for the Center of Excellence in Women’s Health at the University of Utah.
- 迈克尔W. 马里兰州走, H.A. and Edna Benning Endowed Presidential Professor and vice-chair for 研究 for the U’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
- 玛格丽特•米. DeAngelis博士，教授和Ira G. Ross and Elizabeth Olmsted Ross Endowed Chair at the Ira G. 布法罗的罗斯眼科研究所, 纽约, and an adjunct professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the 莫兰眼科中心.
She will also collaborate with a team representing expertise in each aspect of the project, 包括 布拉德利一. 马里兰州Yoder), who oversees the U’s Di愿景 of Neonatology; 杰西卡·米. 康斯托克博士, a pediatric pathologist at the U and a national leader in placental pathology; 林赛一. 法瑞尔博士, chief of Biomedical Genetics at Boston University; and 本杰明·哈兰德博士, co-director of the Cancer Biostatistics Shared Resource at the U and an associate professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences.
"This award allows my lab to bring together the wide-reaching expertise within multiple areas of medicine and science to achieve the unprecedented goal of truly integrated disease analysis,欧文说.
In a second new award, the NIH recently selected Owen to receive a two-year Extramural Loan Repayment Programs (LRP) 格兰特. The LRP program aims to help attract and retain early-career health professionals by helping them to repay educational debt.
Exploring a ‘Window of Opportunity’ to Prevent ROP
除了她的研究工作, Owen has a clinical practice at Moran, where she specializes in the medical and surgical treatment of 儿童眼病, 包括 ROP, which accounts for up to 40 percent of all childhood blindness.
在罗普, the natural process of retinal blood vessel maturation is hijacked, causing vessels to grow inappropriately between the retina and the front of the eye. This prevents developing eye tissue from having a sufficient blood supply, which can cause 愿景 loss in even mild cases and complete blindness for those with the most severe form of the disease.
"ROP is uniquely suited to prevention because it is not present at the time of preterm birth, but instead develops four to eight weeks later,”欧文说。. "Despite this window of opportunity, we lack the ability to intervene and facilitate normal retinal blood vessel maturation. 大发娱乐的工作就是要改变这种状况."
作为研究的一部分, Owen’s lab will conduct a clinical study over the next two to three years with about 300 patients from neonatal intensive care units at 大发娱乐 and Medical University of South Carolina, where Owen completed a pediatric ophthalmology fellowship.
Owen received her medical degree and PhD and completed her ophthalmology residency at the U, 并于2015年加入莫兰学院.
"Our amazing facility and depth of resources at the Moran have created the perfect launching pad for our work,欧文说. "Support from the NEI to better understand maternal 和胎盘l contributions to ROP disease is a big piece to realizing our goal of ROP prevention for these babies."