Endothelial Cell Dysregulation in Neovascular AMD

The candidate is applying for a Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (K08) to support a 5 year research career training program that will significantly bolster his transition to faculty independence as a fellowship trained clinician-scientist specializing in vitreoretinal and macular diseases. The rigorous training program has been designed with extensive input and unyielding support from the candidate's mentor, co-mentor, chairman, and advisory committee. All training will take place in the excellent scientific and academic environment of the University of Kentucky, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences which includes an ocular angiogenesis research consortium consisting of four independent investigators. The applicant will spend the first 3 years of the program as a Research Assistant Professor and Clinical Fellow. The specific design of the fellowship is precisely detailed in the Career Development section and accompanied by a very strong institutional commitment that allows the candidate at least 80% effort performing research and 20% performing clinical duties. After completion of the fellowship, the candidate will transition to a full-time faculty position as Assistant Professor at University of Kentucky with the same institutional commitment of 80% research and 20% clinical effort. The long-term goal of the award is to offer the candidate the critical career development support to establish a pathway to faculty independence that will extensively train him as a biomedical researcher, confident and masterful specialist in the diagnosiS and treatment of vitreoretinal and macular diseases, and leading academician. The candidate aims to have an independent laboratory up and running within the initial 12-18 months of the award period in order to gain early independence with his research project and develop critical prinCipal investigator skills with guidance from his established mentors and advisory committee. The research plan has been devised by the candidate and his mentors and aims to extend his scientific expertise beyond basic vascular biology with a rich experience to develop new techniques and to utilize such methods in experimental designs to obtain critical data that expand his current fund of knowledge in order to yield fundamental insights on endothelial cell dysregulation, immuno-modulation in vascular growth, and therapeutic targets in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD).