Eight students from colleges and universities across the United States and Puerto Rico are on West Virginia University's Health Sciences Campus this summer to explore causes and potential treatments of ocular diseases through the Summer Undergraduate Vision Research Fellowship Program.
The 10-week-long program, hosted by the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, began on May 23 and will conclude on August 1. The program is open to undergraduate students entering their sophomore year or higher who are enrolled in a U.S. or U.S. territory university or college.
"It's exciting to have a new group of talented undergraduates visiting our campus, living in Morgantown for the summer and getting immersed in the world of basic vision research and lab life," said Michael Robichaux, Ph.D., co-coordinator of the program. “I look forward to working alongside the students in our labs and seeing what discoveries they make that contribute to our knowledge of ocular diseases and new treatment methods.”
The program provides undergraduate fellows with basic biochemistry and visual neuroscience research experience in areas that explore blinding diseases and new diagnostic treatment methods of therapeutic intervention, including adeno-associated virus mediated gene therapy. Each student is assigned a lab mentor who is currently conducting research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences laboratory space and will complete a small-scale research project to be presented at the end of the fellowship.
This year’s undergraduate fellows are:
- Hamza Abdul-Karim, West Virginia University
- Kate Belford, West Virginia University
- Molly Bowen, West Virginia University
- Jeremy Jones, Duquesne University
- Sydney Larew, Waynesburg University
- Bernardo Pacheco Pereira, West Virginia University
- Génesis Otero-Rivera, University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus
- Ari Tendo, Juniata College
The program is led by Dr. Robichaux and Saravanan Kolandaivelu, Ph.D., who both serve as co-fellowship coordinators and lab mentors to students. The program is supported through the WVU Visual Sciences Center of Biomedical Research Excellence.
To learn more about research opportunities within the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, visit medicine.hsc.wvu.edu/eye/research
