Award Winners

Award Winners 2024

The Endre A. Balazs Prize

Gabriel Travis
“Photic mechanisms of visual pigment regeneration in vertebrates.”

Will be awarded during the Opening Ceremony
on Monday, October 21
from 11:00 – 12:30
in Room Buen Aire B+C

Biography
Dr. Gabriel Travis received a B.S. degree in Chemistry and an M.D. degree from UCLA. After completing a residency in Neurology, Dr. Travis decided to pursue a career in basic science. He completed two postdoctoral fellowships, with Drs. Michael Grunstein at UCLA and J. Gregor Sutcliffe at Scripps Research Institute. He accepted his first academic appointment at UT Southwestern Medical Center in 1991.

Dr. Travis was recruited back to UCLA as Professor of Ophthalmology and Biological Chemistry in 2001, where he remains through the present. For the past ~20 years, Dr. Travis has been interested in the regeneration of opsin visual pigments. His group determined the role of the ABCA4 transporter in rod and cone outer segments by studying the biochemical and physiological phenotypes in Abca4-/- mice. In another study, his group identified the retinoid isomerase of the canonical visual cycle in RPE cells as RPE65. Later, they made the unexpected observation that blue light regenerates functional visual pigments in photoreceptor outer segments through photoisomerization of all-trans-retinaldehyde as N-retinylidene phosphatidylethanolamine, which is also the translocated substrate of ABCA4. More recently, Dr. Travis’ group identified the catalytic proteins of the alternate visual cycle in Müller cells. These include RGR opsin, retinol dehydrogenase 10, and retinol dehydrogenase 12.

This pathway converts all-trans-retinol to 11-cis-retinol, which is taken up by cones, but not rods, and converted to 11-cis-retinaldehyde for regeneration of cone visual pigments. The alternate visual cycle allows cones to escape competition from rods for 11-cis-retinaldehyde chromophore in daylight-illuminated retinas.

The Ernst H. Bárány Prize

Abbot Clark
“Discovery of novel glaucoma pathogenic pathways and therapeutic targets.”

Will be awarded during the Prize Ceremony and Lecture
on Tuesday, October 22
from 10:30 – 12:00
in Room Buen Aire C

Biography
Dr. Abbot Clark is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Immunology at the University of North Texas Health Science Center and the founding executive director of the North Texas Eye Research Institute. Before joining UNTHSC, Dr. Clark spent 20 years at Alcon Laboratories as head of glaucoma research. Dr. Clark has been among the most influential ocular pharmacologists in the past 40 years. He has made numerous ground-breaking advances to explain how aqueous humor outflow through the trabecular meshwork is regulated, with important therapeutic implications for the management of glaucoma.

Dr. Clark is best known for his breakthrough work elucidating how stimulation of the glucocorticoid receptor in the trabecular meshwork leads to elevation of intraocular pressure. His research into cross-linked actin networks helped explain how the trabecular meshwork responded to mechanical stress, while his discovery that mutations in the myocilin gene increased endoplasmic reticulum stress identified an elusive link to ocular hypertension. Dr. Clark also investigated the interactions between fibrosis, the TGFbeta2 receptor and its regulation by BMP and GREM1, while his research into the Wnt pathway provided new insight into the regulation of outflow. His discoveries into multiple signaling pathways have substantially changed our understanding of how aqueous humor outflow is regulated and have opened many therapeutic avenues.

Dr. Clark has also made extensive contributions to the glaucoma research community. He has trained many students, and supported the careers of numerous scientists, who now impact the field. His involvement in multiple scientific organizations has been instrumental in building the community and improving its scientific progress. Dr. Clark has had an outsized impact on a whole generation of scientists working to regulate outflow through the trabecular meshwork.

Dr. Clark is a pioneer in many areas related to glaucoma and therapeutics. His multiple discoveries into the regulation of the trabecular meshwork make him an ideal recipient of the Bárány Prize.

The Paul Kayser International Award in Retina Research

Hendrik Scholl
“Therapy development for inherited macular degeneration.”

Will be awarded during the Prize Ceremony and Lecture
on Wednesday, October 23
from 10:30 – 12:00
in Room Buen Aire C

Biography
Hendrik Scholl is one of the two founding directors of the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB). He is also Professor and past Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Basel, Switzerland. He specializes in the treatment of retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration and inherited retinal and macular dystrophies such as Stargardt disease. 

Prof. Scholl is a graduate of the Medical Faculty of the University of Tübingen/Germany. After having held several academic
positions at the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn, Germany, he was appointed as Professor of Ophthalmology in 2010 at the Wilmer Eye Institute, John Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Unites States. At the Johns Hopkins Hospital, he headed the Retinal Degeneration Clinic and the Visual Neurophysiology Service. 

Prof. Scholl has authored over 280 articles and reviews in peer-reviewed journals and received numerous prestigious awards, including the European Vision Award, the President’s Award of the American Society of Retinal Specialists, the W. Richard Green Award and the Paul Henkind Memorial Award of the Macula Society, the Swiss Alfred-Vogt Award, and the Kupfer award of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). He holds an honorary doctorate from Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, and is Adjunct Professor at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria.

Prof. Scholl participates and/or chairs several Data Monitoring Committees of large clinical trials and has further leadership roles in ophthalmology such as the president of the European Vision Institute (EVI) and the Chairman of the European Vision Clinical Research Network (EVICR.net).

The Ludwig von Sallmann Prize

Anand Swaroop
“Gene regulatory networks underlying development and death of photoreceptors”

Will be awarded during the Prize Ceremony and Lecture
on Thursday, October 24
from 10:30 – 12:00
in Room Buen Aire C

Biography
Dr. Anand Swaroop currently is a Senior Investigator and founding Director of the Neurobiology-Neurodegeneration & Repair Laboratory, in the Retinal Development, Genetics and Therapy Section of the National Eye Institute/NIH in Bethesda, MD (USA). Over the course of more than three decades, his studies have contributed substantively to our current understanding of:

  1. genetic and epigenetic regulation of photoreceptor development and aging,
  2. genetic defects and mechanisms of photoreceptor dysfunction in retinal neurodegeneration,
  3. genetics of age-related macular degeneration, and
  4. design of new therapeutic paradigms using cell-, gene- or small molecule-based approaches.

The author or coauthor of nearly 350 publications, Dr. Swaroop has given more than 300 invited lectures world-wide, and has received numerous honors and accolades, including the Board of Director’s award from The Foundation Fighting Blindness, the Harrington Senior Scientific Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, the Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award of the University of Michigan Medical School, the Bireswar Chakrabarti Memorial Oration Award by the Indian Eye Research Group, the Prof. P.N. Chhuttani Chair as Distinguished Medical Scientist (visiting) at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, the Outstanding Alumnus award from G.B. Pant University, the Alcon Award for Outstanding Vision Research, and the National Eye Institute Director’s Award and the Ruth L. Kirschstein Award “for exemplary performance while demonstrating significant leadership, skill and ability in serving as a mentor.” He is a Gold-tier Fellow of ARVO and the 2024 ARVO Friedenwald Award recipient.