(Clockwise from top left) The 2025 grant recipients are Simon Kaja, PhD, Sudhir Verma, PhD, Hamed Hatami-Marbini, PhD, and Vinay Aakalu, MD.

  
CLEVELAND, Ohio—The Eversight Center for Vision and Eye Banking Research announced it has awarded four grants to investigators at Loyola University Chicago, University of Houston, University of Illinois Chicago and University of Michigan to advance eye and vision research. Recipients were selected by an independent review panel of academic researchers and ophthalmologists led by Jonathan Lass, MD, and Charles I. Thomas, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Case Western Reserve University and a member of the Eversight board of directors and medical advisory committee.

According to the announcement, proposals selected for funding will engage in meaningful scientific inquisition and align with Eversight’s mission to restore sight and prevent blindness through donation, transplantation and research.

“The Eversight Center for Vision and Eye Banking Research is proud to support innovative studies that address pressing challenges in vision science,” said Onkar B. Sawant, Ph.D., vice president of research and development, Eversight. “These proposals explore groundbreaking approaches, such as developing novel drug evaluation systems for ocular diseases, enhancing limbal stem cell preservation, understanding the biomechanics of keratoconus and advancing therapies for ocular surface squamous neoplasia."

"By investing in these research initiatives, we are driving progress toward improved treatments and solutions that can restore and protect sight for a significant number of people around the world," he said.

Eversight said that it has awarded more than $4 million in grant funding to fuel scientific exploration in the field of vision science. Many of these projects have stimulated larger-scale studies and won further financial support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), according to the announcement.

The 2025 grant recipients and their proposals are:

  • Simon Kaja, PhD, associate professor, department of ophthalmology, molecular pharmacology and neuroscience, Loyola University Chicago, is investigating the development of a novel experimental system that uses choroidal tissue from human donor eyes and a natural membrane extract to stimulate blood vessel growth experimentally using factors that have been linked to the pathophysiology of both wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). This system will then be used to evaluate drugs that target aberrant blood vessel growth.

  • Sudhir Verma, PhD, research scientist/research assistant professor, College of Optometry, University of Houston, is investigating the further characterization of the composition of the extracellular matrix (ECM) within the limbal stem cell niche and will thereafter investigate whether the supplementation of the key ECM components could be used to support limbal epithelial stem cells within human donor corneas during the hypothermic storage.

  • Hamed Hatami-Marbini, PhD, associate professor and director of graduate studies, department of mechanical and industrial engineering, University of Illinois Chicago, is investigating the composition and microstructure of normal human and keratoconus corneal extracellular matrix. The long-term goal of this work is to alter the proteoglycans (PG) content in vitro and in vivo in a controlled way so that the structural functions of PGs in microstructure and biomechanical properties are fully understood.

  • Vinay Aakalu, MD, professor, ophthalmology and visual sciences, University of Michigan, is investigating testing molecules that target a specific pathway that is important in driving ocular surface squamous neoplasia and may be better tolerated by patients. This work will support the development of new more effective and safer treatments for ocular surface squamous neoplasia (OSSN), a term for a range of malignant tumors that affect the conjunctiva and cornea of the eye.
Applications for the 2026 Eversight Eye and Vision Research Grant program cycle will be accepted beginning in the summer of 2025. Learn more here.