Here is an overview of research grants allocated by the Foundation:
2000$ bursary allocated to Andrei Ciobanu.
Andrei finished his medical studies and specialization in anaesthesia in Moldavia. He is since then pursuing his master's degree in biomedical sciences at Université de Montréal and the ophthalmology department at the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont.
Project: This project aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the GDx (camera which scans in three dimensions the nerve fiber layers of the retina) when screening for glaucoma in high risk populations. Subjects underwent a series of exams including a visual field, a GDx and a complete clinical examination of the eye. Several combinations of exams were established and classified according to their efficiency to screen for glaucoma. This study concluded that the GDx may be an effective instrument to screen for glaucoma in high risk populations.
10 000$ bursary allocated to Alvine Kamdeu Fansi.
Alvine finished her medical studies and practiced medicine in Burundi. She finished her master's degree in Biomedical Engineering and is presently pursuing her doctoral degree in biomedical sciences at Université de Montréal. She works in clinical research in medical imagery, telemedecine and ophthalmic screening.
Project: It has been substantiated that anatomical and morphological changes in the optic nerve generally precede losses in the visual field which are only perceptible when glaucoma is already advanced. Therefore, the evaluation of the optic nerve head is one of the most important tests in glaucoma screening. This project aims to validate and set up new glaucoma screening modalities and structures in order to increase early detection and therefore reduce irreversible damage, including blindness. These modalities would enable not only the involvement and collaboration of first-line health professionals (optometrists and family doctors) but also would offer the expertise of glaucoma specialists via telemedicine to distant and remote populations even within developing countries.
15 000$ bursary allocated to the following four candidates (working on a common project):
Denise Descovich received her ophthalmology training outside of Quebec. She works in collaboration with Dr. Mark Lesk at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital research center. Over the past several years her main interest has been ocular blood flow. Her most recent project involves researching phenotypes (in genetics: the observable characteristics of a living organism) involved in glaucoma.
After completing his optometric studies Olivier Fontaine is pursuing his doctoral degree at Dr. Mark Lesk's laboratory. His research focuses on retinal and choroidal circulation in animals and humans.
Renaud Manuguerra-Gagné is a doctoral student in biomedical sciences at the Université de Montréal. His project, co-directed by Dr. Denis-Claude Roy, focuses of the differentiation of stem celles and trabecular cells in order to develop a treatment for open angle glaucoma.
Jing Wang finished her medical studies at McGill University. She is presently pursuing her residency in ophthalmology at the Univesité de Sherbrooke and is a doctoral candidate in biomedical sciences at the Université de Montréal.
Project: Recent research studying how IOP modifies the anatomical structure of the eye has observed that the more elastic the sclera is, the more sensitive the optic nerve head is to anatomical stress. According to these studies, scleral elasticity is the major factor which determines the amount of glaucomatous damage caused to the optic nerve head. This project aims to clinically evaluate the eye's biomechanical factors ( ie. scleral elasticity and thickness) in order to determine the correlation between the amount of optic nerve head damage caused by glaucoma in relation to these factors. A range of biomechanical factors and the degre of optic nerve head damage will be evaluated on both eyes of 300 subjects. If indeed there is a correlation, it will validate which factors which play a role in glaucomatous damage. Furthermore these findings could be used to predict individual patients' rate of progression and adjust their treatment accordingly.