Duke MEDx and the Children’s Health and Discovery Initiative (CHDI) are pleased to announce the awardees of the 2018 MEDx-CHDI pilot grant. Sina Farsiu, PhD, associate professor of ophthalmology, and Joseph Izatt, PhD, Michael J. Fitzpatrick Professor of Engineering, have been awarded $50,000 for their proposal, “Handheld Adaptive Optics Optical Coherence Tomography for Imaging Individual Photoreceptors in Young Children”. The goal of the proposed project is to develop a hand-held adaptive optics optical coherence tomography imaging system, which will allow for in vivo cone photoreceptor imaging in neonates and young children. Such technology will allow for studies of retinal development and microanatomy, mechanisms of injury and recovery, and help to understand the link between neural and ocular development.
The Duke MEDx-Children’s Health and Discovery Initiative (CHDI) pilot grant was designed to support studies that lead to the development of diagnostics, prognostics, or biomarkers for early life risk factors for disease or biological processes associated with diseases that initiate early in life, or methods/technologies to detect exposures that influence childhood or life-long health. Proposals were required to have co-investigators from the School of Medicine and the Pratt School of Engineering to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration.