Fall/Winter 2006 - University of Rochester Medical Center

B&L and University team
Continued from page 32
Department of Ophthalmology has shot up
sevenfold since 2002, and the number of
scientists doing basic eye-related research
has more than doubled.
In one set of new projects to be funded
by B&L, researchers at the University of
Rochester Eye Institute will work toward a
greater understanding of glaucoma, macular
degeneration, and dry eye, and on testing
new treatments for these conditions. The
$6.3 million agreement will also help to fund
a new faculty position, a technician, a resident
position, and a support staff position.
A second agreement will provide
approximately $1 million a year to researchers
at CVS and the Eye Institute who are working
on a variety of projects related to eye health.
Efforts include studying how glaucoma actually
kills nerve cells and damages vision;
looking at the earliest changes in patients
with diabetic retinopathy; treating presbyopia,
where the lens of the eye becomes less flexible
with age, resulting in the need for
reading glasses; and developing new tools
to diagnose and monitor dry eye.
New MS Center
Continued from page 33
Segal is part of a team of physicians
and nurses at the Medical Center who staff
one of the world’s leading MS clinics. About
2,500 MS patients from western New York
and beyond receive their care at the Medical
Center. In addition, Segal is one of the nation’s
leading researchers on the chain reaction of
biochemical steps that happen inside the body
of a person who has MS. He has shed light on
the role of proteins that stimulate and recruit
destructive white blood cells to the central
nervous system during MS. Currently, he is
taking part in an international study testing an
experimental drug that inhibits such proteins in
an attempt to suppress the debilitating attacks
that most patients with MS experience.
Zlokovic honored
Continued from page 36
in mice, those animals were completely fine
and did not develop an Alzheimer’s-like
illness as did their RAGE-filled counterparts.
Partly as a result of Zlokovic’s work, drugs
that target RAGE are being tested in people
in a completely new effort to prevent or slow
the progression of Alzheimer’s. Such drugs
would complement other current medications –
all tested at the University – that doctors use
to treat patients with the disease.
This is the first year of the ISOA/Elan
award program. ISOA is a biomedical venture
philanthropy founded by the Estee Lauder
family to accelerate the discovery and development
of new drugs to prevent, treat and cure
Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is a neurosciencebased
biotechnology company. The award
includes $130,000 toward Zlokovic’s research
program.
Scholarship Initiative
Continued from page 43
Kumasaka has three sons. He never took
them to the hospital or urged them to become
doctors, he said. But two not only chose to
become doctors, they also graduated from
Rochester’s School of Medicine.
“It was out of the blue, but I was happy
they chose Rochester,” he said.
David Kumasaka, M.D. (M ’91), an anesthesiologist,
lives in Flagstaff, Ariz. Peter Kumasaka,
M.D. (M ’92), an emergency medicine physician,
is in St. Paul, Minn. Glen Kumasaka’s oldest
son, Thomas Kumasaka, now a financial
administrator at Harvard, also has a University
connection; he graduated from the River
Campus in 1984. Kumasaka hopes his sons
eventually contribute to increase the impact
of the scholarship.
“The cost to medical students today is
terrible. Money is so important,” he said.
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