Young Female Scholars Honored at Aging Eye Summit

Emily Plyler, a Kent State University student working in the lab of Samuel D. Crish, Ph.D., an associate professor in NEOMED’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, was one of two students  presented the Prevent Blindness Young Investigator Student Fellowship Award for Female Scholars in Vision Research at the statewide Aging Eye Summit held at the NEOMED Education and Wellness Center June 15, 2017. Plyler, shown at the left in the photo, was honored for her project titled Amyloid Pathology in the Retinal Projection. Lindsay Perusek, a student at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, received the award as well. Award selection committee chair Heithem El-Hodiri, Ph.D. (at far right in the photo), from The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, presented the awards.

The day-long Aging Eye Summit presented speakers from government and social services agencies, as well as from the Ohio State University College of Optometry. Keynote speaker John E. Crews, D.P.A., a recently retired health scientist in the Division of Diabetes Translation at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, raised the need for vision impairment to be considered as an important public health concern. Given the prevalence and expense of chronic co-morbid conditions associated with it, vision impairment deserves more attention, he said.  

NEOMED scientists Samuel D. Crish, Ph.D., Denise Inman, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of the Integrated Pharmaceutical Medicine Program;  Christine M. Crish, Ph.D., assistant professor of the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences; and Sue Fosnight, R.Ph., associate professor of pharmacy practice, spoke, respectively, about their research on Alzheimer’s disease; glaucoma; mood-controlling connections between the retina and the brain; and managing medications that affect vision in elderly patients. Jason Richardson, Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical sciences and director of the University’s Neurodegenerative Disease and Aging research area, noted the high premium placed on collaboration among these researchers.