NEW YORK CITY, Aug. 9—The New York Academy of Medicine has awarded its 2006 Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize to Cynthia L. Grosskreutz, MD, PhD, for her discovery of an enzyme that contributes to nerve cell death in the eye in glaucoma, a blinding disease that affects 66 million people worldwide. Grosskreutz and her research team also had success using a drug to deter the cell death in animal models, a treatment that holds promising implications for treatment of glaucoma in humans.

The $50,000 prize from the Academy recognizes the most significant glaucoma research published in a peer-reviewed journal during the prior calendar year. Dr. Grosskreutz and colleagues’ study, entitled “Calcineurin Cleavage is Triggered by Elevated Intraocular Pressure, and Calcineurin Inhibition Blocks Retinal Ganglion Cell Death in Experimental Glaucoma,” appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in August 2005.

“Despite aggressive treatment, some patients with glaucoma continue to lose vision,” Grosskreutz said. “If these findings can be translated to human glaucoma, it promises a new strategy for treating the disease by directly providing protection for neurons. This is the first time that the enzyme calcineurin has been implicated in neuronal death in glaucoma.”

This novel research shows for the first time that calcineurin contributes to the death of a class of optic nerve cells called retinal ganglion cells, which are critical for normal vision. Researchers found that calcineurin becomes over-activated in rats that experience the elevated intraocular pressure (pressure within the eye) that is characteristic of glaucoma. After discovering the role of calcineurin, Grosskreutz and colleagues were able to successfully treat the rats with the drug FK506 to inhibit the enzyme and thereby prevent the death of the retinal ganglion cells. Without these cells, irreversible blindness develops.

Dr. Grosskreutz is the Co-Director of the Glaucoma Service at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. She is a practicing ophthalmologist and glaucoma surgeon, and leads an active research laboratory investigating the fundamental mechanisms of glaucoma-induced blindness.

Grosskreutz was the senior researcher on the winning study. Co-authors were Wei Huang, John Fileta, Adam Dobberfuhl, Theodoros Filippopolous, Yan Guo, and Gina Kwon, all of the Howe Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

The Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize of The New York Academy of Medicine was established in 1995 in honor of Lewis Rudin, the late New York City real estate developer and founder of the Association for a Better New York. The prize is funded by the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., with additional support from Jack Rudin, Chairman of the Rudin Management Company. The Rudin Family has a long tradition of service and philanthropy in New York City.

Nominations for the Rudin Glaucoma Prize are solicited from leaders of the ophthalmologic community, and winners are chosen by a Selection Committee chaired by David H. Abramson, M.D., of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Grosskreutz was chosen from among 16 candidates. Martin Wax, MD, of Alcon Research Ltd., one of the scientists who nominated Grosskreutz, wrote of her research: “I consider this paper a landmark in our field.”

Founded in 1847, The New York Academy of Medicine is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit institution whose mission is to enhance the health of the public. The Academy is a leading center for urban health policy and action working to enhance the health of people living in cities worldwide through research, education, advocacy, and prevention. Visit us online at www.nyam.org. ###

Posted on 08/09/2006

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