The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) and the National Eye Institute (NEI) are pleased to announce that Rachel O Wong, Ph.D. from the University of Washington, will deliver this year’s Joram Piatigorsky Basic Science Lecture. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, September 11, from 12:30pm – 2:45pm at the Porter 35A Neuroscience Building on the NIH campus.
Overview
Dr. Joram Piatigorsky and his wife Mrs. Lona Piatigorsky have established a fund to award annually eye and vision scientists doing basic research exploring little-studied species and imaginative ideas. Managed by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), and bestowed at the National Eye Institute (NEI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Joram Piatigorsky Basic Science Lecture and Award aims to bring attention to notable basic science advancements by researchers in vision and the eye that will help accelerate downstream research by scientists in such fields as genetics, developmental biology, and computer science.
A molecular biologist and eye researcher who in 1981 founded the Laboratory of Molecular and Development Biology at the NEI, Dr. Joram Piatigorsky served as its chief until 2009. There, he established the concept of gene sharing on the basis of the institute’s research on lens crystallins in various vertebrates and invertebrates, such as scallops and jellyfish, that even few knew had an eye. He generalized and extended the gene-sharing concept, an example of basic research focused on the eye with applications to genetics, development, and evolution in general. Now retired, Dr. Piatigorsky retains the title of Scientist Emeritus at the NIH.
The inaugural awardee, chosen by a panel of esteemed basic scientists from NIH and top universities, is Dr. Dan-Eric Nilsson, a professor at Sweden’s Lund University. A renowned researcher and lecturer, Dr. Nilsson co-wrote Oxford University Press’ Animal Eyes, a biological study that explores the evolution and science behind not only human eyes, but those across all animal phyla. Dr. Nilsson is a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and head of the Lund Vision Group.
Dr. Nilsson received a generous award and presented an NIH-wide lecture at NEI on April 11, 2023. He also met with scientists at the NEI and other NIH institutes, and offered a laboratory discussion for trainees.
According to Dr. Piatigorsky, his “research on the eye and vision, as well as its general significance in biology, epitomizes the basic nature of this Award, and his experience presenting his research to wide audiences sets him apart.”
FNIH Contact
For more information, please contact Advancement Officer Advancement Officer Regina Merritt at [email protected] or (301) 827-9013.
About this Year’s Awardee
Rachel O Wong, MD
Department Chair, Biological Structure, University of Washington
Rachel Wong obtained her early scientific training in Australia, earning a B.Sc in Physics at Monash University in 1981, and a Ph.D in Visual Neuroscience from the Australian National University in 1986. Under the guidance of her Ph.D. adviser, Dr. Abbie Hughes, at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra, Dr. Wong developed an interest in understanding the factors that guide the development of retinal ganglion cells and their distributions across the retina. In 1989, she was awarded an NH&MRC C.J. Martin Fellowship to work with Dr. Carla Shatz at Stanford University, where together with Drs. Markus Meister and Denis Baylor, they discovered waves of spontaneous of activity in the developing retina. This activity is now known to play a significant role in shaping the wiring patterns of retinal ganglion cell with visual targets in the brain. After returning to the Vision, Touch and Hearing Center in Australia in 1991 to complete her fellowship, she joined Washington University in St. Louis three years later as as Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, and was promoted to Professor in 2004. In 2006, Dr. Wong relocated to the University of Washington in Seattle to join the Department of Biological Structure, becoming Chair in 2017.
Dr. Wong studies the developmental mechanisms that shape the structure, function and connectivity of the retina. Her research has identified activity-dependent and independent mechanisms working in concert to assemble the stereotypic wiring patterns of retinal circuits. Her lab has taken advantage of several vertebrate species, including ferret, chick, zebrafish, mice, human and non-human primates to uncover developmental strategies common or unique to each species. Her lab studies circuitry in vivo and in vitro using cellular imaging approaches and molecular genetics, and more recently has sought to better understand retinal remodeling and regeneration after loss of retinal neurons. Dr. Wong was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, an Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fellow, and a Paul G. Allen Distinguished Investigator. Her research achievements in vision science are acknowledged by numerous named lectures, the Brian B. Boycott Prize (FASEB Retinal Neurobiology and Visual Processing), and the Friedenwald Award (the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology). In 2021, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Past Awardees
Dr. Dan-Eric Nilsson, Lund University