OGI Clinician Scientists recognized for excellence in clinical care and research
Rachel Huckfeldt MD, PhD is among the 2024 honorees for the Anne Klibanski Visiting Scholars Award. This award is presented to women faculty clinicians, educators, researchers, and postdoctoral fellows who have demonstrated exceptional promise as leaders in their fields and whose careers would benefit from both national and international mentoring and networking opportunities. In addition to caring for patients in the Inherited Retinal Disorders (IRDs) service at Mass Eye and Ear, Dr. Huckfeldt is a clinical trials expert leading many of the natural history and interventional clinical trials currently active in the service.
Elizabeth Rossin MD, PhD is a 2024 recipient of the Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Career Development Award. This award will provide support over four years for research on the genetics of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) and choroidal vasculature. The underlying pathophysiology of this condition is not well understood, Dr. Rossin’s work focusses on the genetics of CSCR to highlight tissues and pathways that likely contribute to disease and should be the focus of therapeutic development.
Jason Comander MD, PhD has been chosen as the first incumbent in the Ayoub Chair in Ophthalmology. This endowed chair was established by the family of a grateful patient to support an individual and their program in inherited retinal disorders. Dr. Comander is the director of the Inherited Retinal Disorders service at Mass Eye and Ear where he sees IRD patients in addition leading his research program focusing on using functional genomics to better understand which DNA variants found in IRD patients are pathogenic.