TFOS AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS

TFOS TRAVEL AWARDS, ARVO 2012

The Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) seeks applicants for the annual TFOS Travel Awards. These awards will provide partial travel support for at least four postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, or young investigators (35 years or younger), whose accepted ARVO '12 abstract, in which they appear as first author, demonstrates significant scientific achievement in the field of tear film or ocular surface research. Each monetary award will be accompanied by a free ticket to the TFOS Dinner* on the evening of Monday, May 7th in Fort Lauderdale, as well as membership in TFOS, that includes a subscription to  The Ocular Surface  (compliments of Alcon).

Applicants should email their accepted ARVO abstract to the Chair of the TFOS Travel Awards Committee   tfosadmin@tearfilm.org  by March 5th in PDF format. Awardees will be notified by April 16th and will be announced during the TFOS Dinner. Individuals who are recipients of other ARVO 2012 travel grant awards are not eligible to apply.

*Details about the TFOS Dinner at ARVO will be announced in early March.

TFOS/ARVO Travel Awards

The Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) seeks applicants for the annual TFOS Travel Awards. These awards will provide partial travel support for at least four postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, or young investigators (35 years or younger), whose accepted ARVO '11 abstract, in which they appear as first author, demonstrates significant scientific achievement in the field of tear film or ocular surface research. Each award will be $750.00 USD and will be accompanied by a free ticket to the TFOS Dinner as well as a complimentary membership in TFOS, that includes a subscription to The Ocular Surface (compliments of Alcon).

TFOS TRAVEL AWARDS, ARVO 2011

The Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society congratulated the following individuals for winning the TFOS Travel Awards for ARVO 2011:

TFOS awarded 6 Travel Grants during ARVO this year. Winners are, from left to right: Mindy Call, Osama Ibrahim, Wendy Kam & Lili Zhang; (not shown are Javier Belmonte & Shubha Tiwari) and TFOS Governing Board member Pablo Argueso.

Javier Belmonte (Alicante, Spain) - Evolution of mechanical and chemical corneal sensitivity and innervation after penetrating keratoplasty (Program#/Poster# - 360/D876)
Mindy Call (Cincinnati, USA) - Integrin and TGF-ß signaling: involvement in two types of corneal wound healing (Program#/Poster# - 2032/D1013)

Osama Ibrahim (Tokyo, Japan) - Evidence for accelerated apoptosis and altered meibomian glandular differentiation in the SOD1-/- knock-out mice novel model for age related dry eye disease (Program#/Poster# - 3771/D904)

Wendy Kam (Boston, USA) - Vasoactive intestinal peptide stimulates the adenylyl cyclase pathway in immortalized human meibomian gland epithelial cells (Program#/Poster# - 3730/D863)

Shubha Tiwari (Hyderabad, India) - Establishing human lacrimal gland cultures and evaluating their ex-vivo secretory function (Program#/Poster# - 3711/D844)

Lili Zhang (Houston, USA) - TLR4/MyD88 innate immunity pathway mediates TSLP/IL-33 triggered inflammation in murine allergic conjunctivitis (Program#/Poster# - 2913/D1007)

These awards provided partial travel support for postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, or young investigators (35 years or younger), whose accepted ARVO '11 abstract, in which they appeared as first author, demonstrated significant scientific achievement in the field of tear film or ocular surface research. Each monetary award ($750.00) was accompanied by a free ticket to the TFOS Annual Dinner on the evening of Monday, May 2nd in Fort Lauderdale, as well as membership in TFOS, that includes a subscription to The Ocular Surface (compliments of Alcon).

ARVO 2010, Ft. Lauderdale

Krishen Cunnusamy, UT Southwestern, Corneal Allograft Survival Requires Interplay Between T Regulatory Cells And Interleukin 17A

Raheleh Darabad, SERI, Sex And Androgen Effects On Gene Expression In Autoimmune Lacrimal Glands

Payal Khandelwal, SERI, Androgen Stimulation Of Lipid-Related Genes In Human Meibomian Gland Epithelial Cells.

Shaohui Liu SERI, Changes In Gene Expression In Meibomian Gland Dysfunction

ARVO 2009, Ft. Lauderdale

Fabian Garreis , Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg: Expression and Regulation of Antimicrobial Peptide Psoriasin (S100A7) in the Lacrimal Apparatus

Ana Guzman , Schepens Eye Research Institute and Complutense University: Role of T-synthase in Apical Barrier Formation on Ocular Surface Epithelia

Shaohui Liu , Schepens Eye Research Institute: Growth Factor Influence on the Proliferation of Human Meibomian Gland Epithelial Cells

Xiaoyong Yuan , Baylor College of Medicine: Expression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Evolution of Corneal Neovascularization during Experimental Candida albicans Keratitis

James Mun , University of California Berkeley: Pre-exposure of Corneal Epithelial Cells to Human Tear Fluid Induces Protective Activity Against P. aeruginosa Virulence Mechanisms; Sjögren's Syndrome Foundation Award

ARVO 2008, Ft. Lauderdale

Fang Bian, Baylor College of Medicine, Cullen Eye Institute, Houston, TX, USA. Human Limbal Basal Epithelium-Derived GDNF Suppresses the Stress and Inflammation-Induced Cytokines Through NF-kB Signaling Pathway

Shaohui Liu, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Isolation, Culture and Immortalization of Human Meibomian Gland Epithelial Cells

Flavio Mantelli, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Glycogene Profile Of The Conjunctival Epithelium In Normal And Dry Eye Patients

Ushasree Pattamatta, Institute for Eye Research, Sydney, Australia. Bovine Lactoferrin Promotes Alkali-Induced Wound Healing in Corneal Epithelial Cells by Up-Upregulating PDGF

Sjögren's Syndrome Foundation Award:

Shivaram Selvam, USC Doheny Eye Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Impact of Chronic Stimulation with Carbachol, Histamine and Serotonin on Ion Transport in a Novel, Chloride-Secreting Rabbit Lacrimal Acinar Cell Monolayer Model.

ARVO 2007 , Ft. Lauderdale

Romulo Albuquerque, DDS, MS College of Medicine, Univ of Kentucky, Dept of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences Topical Gene ablation of sflt-1 Abolishes Corneal Avascularity

Shao Lui, MD, PhD Schepens Eye Research Institute Sjögren's Syndrome Foundation Award Aromatase Influence on Gene Expression in the Meibomian Gland

Zan Pan, MD, MS SUNY State College of Optometry Functional Expression of Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 4 in Human Corneal Epithelial Cells

Hong Qi, MD, PhD Baylor College of Medicine Identification of Neurotrophic Factors NGF, GDNF and Their Corresponding Receptors TrkA, GFR -1 as Potential New Markers for Human Corneal Epithelial Stem Cells

Chandra Saravanan Tufts University Galectin-3 Promotes Formation of Lamellipodia, Filopodia and Tunneling Nanotube (TNT)-Like Structures in Corneal Epithelium.

Fan Zhang, MD SUNY State College of Optometry Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) Activation Induces Proinflammatory Responses Through MAPK Stimulation

ARVO 2006 , Ft. Lauderdale

Cintia de Paiva, Baylor, US

Angela Johnson, Case Western Reserve, US

PB Thomas, Doheny Eye Institute, US

S. Xu, SUNY State College of Optometry, US

ARVO 2005 , Ft. Lauderdale

Audrey Bernstein, New York, NY, USA Urokinase Pathway Regulation in Corneal Fibroblasts and Myofibroblasts.

Gabriel Greifner, Jerusalem, Israel Cell Migration Course in the Healthy Rat's Palpebral Mucocutaneous Transitional Zone Epithelium.

Tetsuya Kawakita, Miami, FL, USA Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition by Limbal Epithelial Progenitor Cells Leads to Intrastromal Invasion, Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency and Fibrosis.

Peisong Ma, Charlottesville, VA, USA Identification of Syndecan-1 as a Coreceptor for Prosecretory Mitogen 'Lacritin.'

Bupe Mwaikambo, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Activation of CD36 Inhibits and Prevents Progression of Corneal Neovascularization.

Ashish Sharma, Charlottesville, VA, USA Tumor Necrosis Factor-Induced Apoptosis in Corneal Epithelial Cells Is Attenuated by Novel Lacrimal Glycoprotein, Lacritin.