Rockville, Md. – The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) today announced the recipient of the Mallinckrodt Uveitis Research Fellowship, generously funded by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. The award, funded through the ARVO Foundation, supports an early career investigator with a one-year grant of $45,000 to study an aspect of uveitis or other inflammatory conditions of the eye. The 2021 awardee is Shilpa Kodati, MD of the National Eye Institute (NEI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“The ARVO Foundation is so pleased to be able to support the work and careers of promising young researchers,” says ARVO Foundation Chair Paul Sternberg, Jr., MD, FARVO. “We are grateful for Mallinckrodt’s investment in this award program that furthers the study of uveitis and inflammatory conditions of the eye while providing critical funding support to ARVO’s rising stars.”
Kodati, a staff clinician in vitreoretinal surgery and uveitis at the NEI, will use the award to further her research on immune mechanisms in non-infectious uveitis — a sight-threatening disease — helping further characterize components of the immune response in uveitis and specifically, the effect of different immunomodulatory treatments on these components. Kodati believes that better understanding of these immune mechanisms may lead to the identification of biomarkers of inflammation, allowing for better assessments and selections of therapies to treat patients with uveitis.
“Inflammatory eye diseases are a broad category associated with an array of causes, including immunologic and traumatic, amongst others,” said Steven Romano, MD, Executive Vice President & Chief Medical Officer of Mallinckrodt. “This fellowship aims to uncover the mechanisms behind conditions like uveitis, providing the vision community with vital information for additional research. We are honored to support the ARVO Foundation in fostering the next generation of answer seekers, treatment developers and cure finders.”
The intent of the award is to provide investigators who are early in their careers with an opportunity to generate preliminary results that, if promising, may be leveraged to earn additional, longer-term funding support. The grant is also intended to catalyze the authorship of impactful publications and the stimulation of further insights and advances in the ocular inflammation space.
“I am honored to receive this award,” says Kodati. “As an early-stage clinician-scientist, this award will further my research through providing essential funding for this pilot study.”
For more information about the Mallinckrodt Uveitis Research Fellowship, visit ARVO’s website.
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The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) is the largest eye and vision research organization in the world. Members include approximately 10,000 eye and vision researchers from over 75 countries. ARVO advances research worldwide into understanding the visual system and preventing, treating and curing its disorders. Learn more at ARVO.org.
Established in 2001, the ARVO Foundation for Eye Research raises funds through partnerships, grants and sponsorships to support ARVO’s world-class education and career development resources for eye and vision researchers of all stages of career and education. Learn more at ARVOFoundation.org.
Mallinckrodt is a global business consisting of multiple wholly owned subsidiaries that develop, manufacture, market and distribute specialty pharmaceutical products and therapies. The company’s Specialty Brands reporting segment’s areas of focus include autoimmune and rare diseases in specialty areas like neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology and ophthalmology; immunotherapy and neonatal respiratory critical care therapies; and analgesics. Its Specialty Generics and Amitiza reporting segment includes specialty generic drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients and AMITIZA® (lubiprostone). To learn more about Mallinckrodt, visit www.mallinckrodt.com.
