Raj Apte, MD, PhD of Washington University to receive 2024 Roger Johnson Award
Rajendra Apte, MD, PhD, the Paul A. Cibis Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named as the 2024 recipient of the Roger H. Johnson Award.
The late Dr. Roger H. Johnson endowed this award with his wife, Angie Karalis Johnson, given every other year through the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Washington. The intent of the award is to stimulate clinical and basic science research related to the pathogenesis or treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
The award includes a cash prize, and Dr. Apte will deliver a lecture at the department’s 50th annual Resident Alumni Day on June 15 at the UW Medicine South Lake Union campus.
Macular degeneration affects more than 20 million people globally. Glaucoma affects 65 million people globally, and diabetic retinopathy continues to affect more people every year.
Dr. Apte’s research at Washington University includes the study of cholesterol metabolism – lipids being involved in eye disease.
“When you look into a patient’s eye with macular degeneration, you see the lipid deposits underneath the retina,” Apte said in a profile on the Washington University website. “Seeing these deposits underneath the retina was the way for a physician to diagnose macular degeneration, but the interesting scientific question is why the deposits are there.”
In the past 10 years, research has shown that people with the right genetic background, risk factors, and age (over 50) are more prone to developing these lipid deposits.
“What we discovered is that there is dysfunction in the immune system that is not able to clear these lipids. This creates an environment of inflammation, eventually leading to more advanced stages of the disease where neurons in the retina die,” Dr. Apte said.
Dr. Apte says he is confident in 10 to 15 years, the next frontier will have therapies for macular degeneration to give patients short-term and long-term vision gains and to stop the slow decline of visual function by restoring normal physiology.
Dr. Apte is a native of Mumbai, India. He received his MD from L.T.M. Medical College, University of Bombay, India, PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas; residency in Ophthalmology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas; fellowship in retina, Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute, Baltimore.
Roger Johnson graduated from the University of Wisconsin and trained at the Mayo Clinic. He set up his practice in downtown Seattle in 1945 and came to serve as a clinical professor on the University of Washington faculty; he was also a mentor and an eye researcher. Johnson established the eye clinic at Seattle Children’s and volunteered his time to serve as chief of service for more than 40 years.
Roger and his wife Angie were always interested in improving the health of eye patients. Nearly 40 years ago, they endowed the Roger Johnson Lectureship at Seattle Children’s, which brings top pediatric ophthalmologists to Seattle and has become one of the most prestigious visiting lectureships in the specialty.
Later, in 2001, they endowed the Roger H. Johnson Award for Macular Degeneration. This prize is given to the scientist who has made the most significant contribution to the understanding or treatment of age-related macular degeneration. A remarkably generous gift from Angie Karalis Johnson led to the creation of the Roger and Angie Karalis Johnson Retina Center at UW Medicine South Lake Union in 2019.