Winter 2024 Message from the Chair
Welcome to the Winter 2024 edition of the Department of Ophthalmology InSight Newsletter. Our research, educational, and clinical activities are bustling right now, and in this newsletter, we are pleased to highlight several areas.
The research spotlight in this issue shines on Assistant Professor Debarshi Mustafi, MD, PhD, and his lab’s exciting and groundbreaking work to create a method for rapid genetic sequencing for inherited retinal diseases, reducing the time by weeks in some cases.
In our patient care feature, we celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Karalis Johnson Retina Center at South Lake Union.
This center, supported by a remarkably generous gift from Angie Karalis Johnson, opened in 2019. It has supported over 32,000 patient visits in the past five years and an ambitious research program. Angie’s dream for the Karalis Johnson Retina Center to become the world’s leading center for the cure and treatment of retinal diseases is coming ever closer to reality. Read more about the center and its work in our special 5-year Community Report. (link)
In our education spotlight, meet our incoming fellows and residents joining us in July and learn more about the research of first-year resident Deborah Im, MD, who received special recognition at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Finally, in our philanthropy spotlight, learn more about Larry and Eileen Tietze, who have made annual gifts from their family foundation in the form of an award to support the work of an early-career or mid-career scientist in the UW Department of Ophthalmology.
On behalf of the department, thank you for your continuing support of our mission to alleviate suffering from eye disease. Please visit our website at ophthalmology.washington.edu and our new Facebook and Instagram pages for more news and updates.
Russell N. Van Gelder, MD, PhD,
Boyd K. Bucey Chair, UW Medicine Department of Ophthalmology
Director, Roger and Angie Karalis Johnson Retina Center
Director, Vision Science Center