Mark Kantorow, an assistant professor of biology, in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, has received the 2002 Cataract Research Award from the National Foundation for Eye Research. The foundation recently presented him with the award at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Kantorow received this competitive, national award for his work on identifying genes that play important roles in age-related cataract, the leading cause of blindness globally. His work seeks to discover the genes that influence this disease in order to develop preventative treatments.
“I feel that Dr. Kantorow is one of the most promising young researchers carrying out research in the eye lens, and that his work has already made major contributions to our understanding of age-related cataract,”said Jo Fielding Hejtmancik, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Section on Occular Genetics at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH). Hejtmancik gave the introductory
remarks about Kantorows work when he received the award and is an internationally-known expert on human genetic diseases and cataract.
A cataract is composed of protein deposits that form in the lens of the eye and cause a loss of vision. The most common type of cataract is related to aging; more than half of all Americans age 65 and older have a cataract, and cataract surgery is one of the major costs for Medicare in the U.S.
“Age-related cataract, diabetes, retinal diseases, Altzheimers disease, and other age-related diseases are becoming national health problems with the aging U.S. population,”Kantorow says.”These diseases are very difficult to treat or understand since they involve both environmental and genetic factors. Developing preventative therapies for these diseases is urgently important.”
Cataracts are dependant on environmental effects such as ultraviolet light exposure and smoking, peoples genetic backgrounds, and aging. Kantorow hopes not only to prevent cataracts, but also to help scientists understand and develop therapies for other age-related afflictions, including Alzheimers disease.
Kantorow joined the WVU faculty in 1999 after serving as a faculty member at the UCLA medical school. He completed his post-doctoral training at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, after receiving his Ph.D. in genetics from The George Washington University in 1991.
His work is currently supported by a five-year, $1 million NIH grant. Since establishing his research program at WVU , Kantorow and his students have published more than 15 papers on the genetics of cataract and other diseases of human vision in leading scientific journals.
“Our laboratory is making great strides in understanding these diseases by using molecular genetics to identify those genes that may provide natural protection against these diseases. Our hope is that better understanding of cataract genetics will lead to preventative therapies to treat cataract and other age-related diseases,”Kantorow says.
Kantorow has supervised both graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in molecular genetics and vision research at WVU . His laboratory consists of four undergraduate and graduate research students and his research manager, Nancy Sheets.
“I am happy and honored to received this award and would like to thank the numerous people who made this possible, including my mentors, students, post-docs, and other members of my laboratory,”Kantorow says.