Knights Templar Eye Foundation awards pediatric research grant

Ravi Yadev, PhD, a postdoctoral research scholar in molecular physiology and biophysics at the UI Carver College of Medicine, has received a Pediatric Ophthalmology Career-Starter Research Grant from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation. Yadev will use the one-year, $65,000 grant to study a mechanism involved in Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a leading cause of childhood blindness.

In children with LCA, rod and cone photoreceptor cells in the retina degenerate rapidly, resulting in loss of eyesight before the child is one year old. Mutations in the AIPL-1 protein, which helps stabilize an important retinal enzyme, are linked to LCA. Yadev’s research aims to understand how AIPL-1 mutations affect the protein’s ability to interact with the retinal enzyme, with the hope this knowledge can be used to develop new treatments for LCA.

Sir Knight David M. Dryer, Past Department Commander for the North Central Department, and Sir Knight W. Charles Smithson, Grand Generalissimo, of the Grand Commandery of Iowa, presented a check for the funding to Yadev on May 18, at the UI Carver College of Medicine. Yadev’s mentor Nikolai Artemyev, PhD, UI professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, and Scott Moye-Rowley, PhD, executive associate head of the department, also attended the presentation.

From left to right: Nikolai Artemyev, PhD, UI professor of molecular physicology and biophysics; Sir Knight W. Charles Smithson, Grand Generalissimo, of the Grand Commandery of Iowa; Ravi Yadav, PhD, UI postdoctoral fellow in molecular physiology and biophysics; Sir Knight David M. Dryer, Past Department Commander for the North Central Department; Scott Moye-Rowley, UI professor and executive associate head of molecular physiology and biophysics.