NEW YORK CITY, August 24, 2005 – From a highly competitive field of 15 candidates, the Selection Committee of the Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize chose Dr. Francesca Cordeiro, University College London, as the 2005 recipient of its $50,000 award. Since 1995, the Rudin Prize has been granted to the researcher who submits the most outstanding scholarly article on the subject of glaucoma; articles must have been published in a peer-reviewed journal in the previous calendar year.

On July 19, the Trustees of The New York Academy of Medicine ratified the committee’s decision and made formal announcement of the Rudin Award to Dr. Cordeiro. She received the award on the basis of her 2004 article, “Real-time imaging of single nerve cell apoptosis in retinal neurodegeneration,” published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), September 7, 2004, vol. 101, no. 36. In that article, Dr. Cordeiro, with Li Guo, Vy Luong, Glen Harding, Wei Wang, Helen E. Jones, Stephen E. Moss, Adam M. Sillito, and Frederick W. Fitzke, describes the invention of a trailblazing technique designed to visualize the death of single nerve cells in the living retina. As noted by the Academy’s President, Dr. Jeremiah Barondess, “The mechanism of cell death studied by this technique has also been implicated in other serious nervous system diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.”

In terms of glaucoma research and treatment, the benefits of the technique described by Dr. Cordeiro are:
• Early diagnosis of glaucoma before any vision loss occurs
• Detection of individual nerve cells actually dying – never before done in a living being
• Monitoring of treatment in real time by visualizing apoptosis
• Drastic reduction of the time required for clinical trials, in some cases from years to months.

Upon learning of her award, Dr. Cordeiro commented, “The unique environment of University College London contributed greatly to my work. This research would not have been possible without the diverse expertise and collaboration of Professors Fitzke (Imaging), Moss (Annexin), and Sillito (Neuroscience).”

Dr. Cordeiro currently practices at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London. She attended St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, London, where she qualified with an MD in 1987. She became a member of the Royal College of Physicians, London, in 1990; a Fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, London, in 1992; and received her PhD from the Institute of Ophthalmology - University of London in 1998. In 2003, she was accredited in General and Surgical Ophthalmology (the equivalent of being an Attending Physician in Ophthalmology in the United States).

Dr. Cordeiro is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the 2000 International Glaucoma Review Prize for best research paper published worldwide in 1999-2000 and the Wellcome Trust University Lecturer Award in 2001. In January 2005, she was a Visiting Professor at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in Manhattan.

The Rudin Prize was established in 1995 and is funded by the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc. The New York Academy of Medicine, the country’s premier urban health policy and intervention center, focuses on enhancing the health of people living in cities through research, education, advocacy, and prevention.

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EDITORS: Copies of Dr. Cordeiro’s 2004 prize-winning article and curriculum vitae are available. Call Maria Dering, 212-873-6715.

Posted on 08/30/2005

Contact:
Malini Doddamani
Director of Communications
mdoddamani@nyam.org
212.822.7285