Ajay Kumar, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Ashok Kumar, Ph.D., assistant professor of Ophthalmology and of Anatomy/Cell Biology for the Wayne State University School of Medicine, was awarded the Raniyah Ramadan Foundation Young Investigator Award in Microbiology.
The award is given by the foundation to recognize the best ocular microbiology presentations at the annual meeting of the Association for Research and Vision in Ophthalmology, the world's largest eye and vision research organization with nearly 12,000 members from more than 75 countries.
Dr. Ajay Kumar received the first place for his poster presentation, "Involvement of endoplasmic reticulum stress in the pathogenesis of bacterial endophthalmitis." The prize includes $500 and a traveling plaque with his and mentor's name inscribed. The award will be presented at ARVO's next annual meeting, set for May 1-5, 2016, in Seattle, Wash.
"I'm very pleased to hear the news and the recognition of our laboratory, and acknowledge the scientific review panel's enthusiasm for our research endeavors." Dr. Ashok Kumar said. "Indeed, we just returned the plaque, which was earlier awarded to Dr. Pawan Singh (Ph.D.), a senior fellow in the lab in 2013. I never realized that it would return to my office so soon."
"The emphasis of my research project is to investigate the role of endoplasmic reticulum stress in the pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus endophthalmitis, the bacterium that causes severe retinal damage and vision loss. Our studies in animal model and cultured retinal cells revealed that modulation of ER stress could be a potential target to limit excessive inflammation incited by pathogen attack." Dr. Ajay Kumar said. "I would like to extend my thanks to my mentor, Dr. Ashok Kumar, for his encouragement and full support. He constantly promotes us and provides guidance to become an independent researcher, and as a result I have already submitted few research proposals for extramural funding."
"Although the ideal approach for the management of endophthalmitis should include both bacterial eradication and inflammation resolution, monotherapy with intravitreal antibiotic injections remains the current standard of treatment. The antibiotics, while destroying the bacteria, may release bacterial cell wall components, which contribute to intraocular inflammation in bacterial endophthalmitis. Thus, we need adopt both antimicrobial and adjunct anti-inflammatory therapeutic approaches to treat ocular infections such as infectious endophthalmitis." Dr. Ashok Kumar said. "The project that Ajay is doing provide us another approach to attenuate intraocular inflammation and prevent host-induced secondary damage to retinal tissue."
The research interests of Dr. Kumar's laboratory are the pathogenesis of bacterial endophthalmitis, a rare but serious complication of ocular trauma or surgeries that frequently leads to vision loss in some patients. His National Eye Institutes R01-funded research focuses on investigating the role of toll-like receptors in regulating retinal innate defense in endophthalmitis. Dr. Kumar's work has discovered immunomodulatory therapeutic approaches to reduce intraocular inflammation incited by invading pathogen. Additionally, he has developed bacteriophage (phage)-based antimicrobial therapy for the treatment of multi-drug resistant bacterial endophthalmitis.