Ambati Receives Translational Research Award
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 14, 2010) − Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, professor and vice chair in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine has been selected to receive the 2011 Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Foundation for Eye Research/Pfizer Carl Camras Translational Research Award.
This award is given to researchers who exhibit excellence in research via their fundamental scientific discoveries and novel technologies that have already led to or may lead to clinical applications. Dr. Camras was highly respected for his work as a glaucoma specialist and a research scientist. During his distinguished career, he took a personal interest in developing the next generation of eye and vision researchers.
"I am honored and humbled to be chosen for this prestigious award," Ambati said. "This award recognizes the important contributions that the talented young scientists in my research group have made in advancing the understanding of how macular degeneration develops and how it can be better diagnosed and treated. While such recognition from my peers is tremendously gratifying, my professional mission is to hasten the day when blindness due to macular degeneration becomes a faded memory."
Ambati's lab, which is funded by the National Eye Institute, has made numerous foundational contributions in macular degeneration research with multiple research articles published in Nature, Nature Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Ambati holds the Dr. E. Vernon Smith & Eloise C. Smith Endowed Chair in Macular Degeneration Research. He is the first ophthalmologist to win the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award and a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research. He was also elected to The American Society for Clinical Investigation and was the first ophthalmologist to be elected to The Association of American Physicians.
Ambati will receive a $10,000 honorarium in recognition of his excellent translational research, and be honored on May 1, 2011 at the ARVO/Alcon Keynote Session at the ARVO Annual Meeting.