The sixth annual Vision Research Workshop, featuring The Robert N. Frank Clinical Translational Lectureship, will be presented at the Kresge Eye Institute’s Jampel Auditorium from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 23.

The workshop is a trainee-run symposium of poster and papers from throughout the Wayne State University School of Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital and Oakland University.

The event highlights the research accomplishments of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research assistants/associates, residents, clinical fellows and medical students.

The keynote speaker, giving the Robert N. Frank Clinical Translational Lecture, will be Jeff Gross, Ph.D., the E. Ronald Salvitti Professor of Ophthalmology, and director, vice chair and director of research for the Louis J. Fox Center for Vision Restoration at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. gross will present “Modeling Ophthalmic Diseases and Developing Vision Restoration Strategies Using Zebrafish.”

Dr. Gross’ research utilizes the zebrafish as a model system to identify fundamental processes required for ocular development, the mechanisms underlying ocular disorders and the mechanisms underlying regeneration. His research has been supported through grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and grants from numerous private foundations.

He received his bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1996 from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and his doctoral degree in Cell and Molecular Biology in 2002 from Duke University. For his postdoctoral training, Dr. Gross worked from 2002 to 2005 with John Dowling, Ph.D., professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard University, and collaborated extensively with Nancy Hopkins, Ph.D., the Amgen Inc. Professor of Biology Emerita at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 2005, Dr. Gross started his independent laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2011, and to professor in 2015. In 2012, he was appointed associate director of the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology.

He developed several undergraduate and graduate courses while at the University of Texas at Austin, and mentored more than 50 postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate students, nearly all of whom remain active in science.
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