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Doctoral / PhD Programs

We are available via e-mail , and via phone at the following times: Mo - Fr 9 am - 12 noon and Wed also 2 - 5 pm . 

WU's Doctoral and PhD programs are three year-programs and usually take at least 6 semesters to complete. In the course of your studies, you attend courses, pass examinations and write a dissertation. 

The PhD programs are mainly intended for the university's academic staff. The doctoral programs can also be studied by students who are not working at the university.

Information about admission to a doctoral/PhD program is available in the chapter Application and Admission .

We recommend that you submit your online application for the Doctoral/PhD programs by the end of June for the winter semester or by the end of October for the summer semester.

Preliminary confirmation of supervision

According to WU's statutes / degree program structures, you need to have found a supervisor at WU before you can enrol in a doctoral/PhD program (except PhD Finance and DIBT). The WU professor willing to supervise your dissertation signs the preliminary confirmation of supervision; you need this document for admission, as well as a short synopsis of your dissertation project. You have to find a supervisor yourself, the university cannot provide you with one. As many are interested to begin a doctoral/PhD program at WU, looking for a supervisor may be a difficult and time-consuming business.

Orientation for (future) doctoral students 04.03.2024

Social and Economic Sciences

Business law, international business taxation, economics and social sciences, is it possible to do the doctoral program if i have a fulltime job.

The doctoral/PhD programs are full time programs during which the students not only have to write a dissertation, but also attend courses. All the courses are classes with continuous assessment of students' performance and have to be attended on a regular basis. While it is not possible to do the program as a distant study course from abroad, it is possible (but at the same time very demanding) to study the program sideline; however it will then in all probability take you longer than 6 semesters to complete.

Can I study the doctoral program as a distant study course?

No. There are numerous courses with continuous assessment of students' performance which have to be attended on a regular basis.

How long does the doctoral program take to complete?

It is possible to graduate in 6 semesters, but if you are employed on a full time or part time basis, you will probably take longer than the minimum time. Currently, the average duration until completion is 7 to 8 semesters.

Will the doctoral programs soon be changed to PhD programs? What is the difference between Doctor and PhD?

The WU already offers PhD programs, which are mainly intended for academic staff. It is not planned to discontinue the doctoral programs.

The PhD programs in Finance and DIBT have an admission procedure with interviews. For the PhD program in Economic and Social Sciences, the prerequisite is a close association with/workplace at the institute of the main supervisor, as its flexible structure requires constant coordination with the supervisor. 

The PhD programs feature a greater number of courses than the doctoral programs, but also more flexibility in their choice. 

The degrees "Dr." and "PhD" are equivalent regarding the academic level; both are doctoral studies according to ISCED-Code 8. The "PhD" title is maybe more familiar internationally, the "Doctor" is the more traditional title in German speaking countries. There is no difference with regard to career options after completion of the programs.

How do I find a supervisor for my dissertation?

By contacting the professors. You have to find a supervisor yourself, the university cannot appoint a professor to act as supervisor.

Every university professor with a habilitation is entitled to act as supervisor. Information on research areas of individual professors and departments can be found on the homepages of the different institutes; the better your intended topic fits into the research areas of a department, the easier you will find a professor to supervise your thesis.

If you contact professors with your suggestion, please send along a short concept (1 - 3 pages) about the intended topic. Please bear in mind that the professors receive many requests and may not reply to e-mails in which students simply ask if they would act as supervisor, without any information on the dissertation project they have in mind.

Are there topics for which one can apply, or do I need to find my own topic?

Some institutes have a list of possible topics of dissertations on their hompage; in most cases however, students apply for supervision with a topic of their own.

When and where can I enrol in a doctoral program?

During admission times in the study service center (building LC, 2nd floor). If you have not been enrolled in a program at WU before, please enter your data online.

In order to be able to enrol in the doctoral program, your diploma or master studies have to be completed. If you have completed your studies at WU, you do not need to wait for your "Sponsionsbescheid" (Decision of Conferral of degree); however, all grades have to be on your Consolidated Grade Record before you can enrol in the doctoral program.

Where do I find the courses on offer? How do I register for them?

All courses are listed in the course catalog . Here you can also find information about when and where to register, course descriptions and prerequisites for classes.

Registration for courses is via LPIS .

Do I have to attend the classes?

Can i specialise in a main subject of my choice or is my choice limited, depending on the field i specialised in during my master studies.

The main subject is chosen from the list of subjects in the appendix of the degree program structures. The main subject is the subject you write your dissertation in and in which your supervisor did his habilitation. The specialisation/discipline you chose in your master studies does not limit your choice in the doctoral program, but of course it is easier to write the dissertation in a field you are already familiar with. Professors usually expect proof of previous knowledge in the field before they agree to act as supervisor of a dissertation.

Is a knowledge of German necessary?

Only the PhD programs in Finance and International Business Taxation are taught exclusively in English. The teaching language of the doctoral programs, however, is German. Applicants whose first language is not German have to submit proof of German proficiency before they are admitted to the doctoral program.

The doctoral program in Social and Economic Sciences can be studied in English if the supervisor confirms that Research Seminars are offered in English. In the subject "Philosophy of science and Research Methods" there is an "English Track", which enables students to do these courses in English.

The dissertation may be written in a foreign language, if the student and the supervisor are fluent in this language.

Doctoral Office

Building LC, 2nd floor Welthandelsplatz 1 1020 Vienna

Tel: +43-1-313-36-4025 or -4696 E-Mail: [email protected]  

Opening times

Monday: 3 - 5 pm Wednesday: 2 - 5 pm Thursday: 9 am -12 noon  Please make an appointment in advance via e-mail.

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Joseph C. Wu, MD, PhD, is Director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and the Simon H. Stertzer, MD, Professor of Medicine and Radiology . Dr. Wu received his medical degree from Yale. He completed his medicine internship, residency, and cardiology fellowship ( STAR program ) at UCLA. He obtained his PhD in the Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology with the late  Dr. Sam Sanjiv Gambhir . His clinical interests include adult congenital heart disease and cardiovascular imaging.

His lab works on biological mechanisms of patient-specific and disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The main goals are to (i) understand cardiovascular disease mechanisms, (ii) accelerate drug discovery, (iii) develop "clinical trial in a dish" concept, and (iv) implement precision medicine for prevention and treatment of cardiovascular patients. His lab uses a combination of genomics, stem cells, cellular & molecular biology, physiological testing, and molecular imaging technologies to better understand molecular and pathological processes. Dr. Wu has published >600  manuscripts  with H-index of 129 on  Google scholar  and recognition as top 0.1% of highly cited researchers in  Web of Science  for past 5 years (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023). Among his  trainees , 52 of them are principal investigators in the US or abroad.

Dr. Wu has received numerous awards, including National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award, NIH Roadmap Transformative Award, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) given out by President Obama at the White House, American Heart Association (AHA) Innovative Research Award, AHA Established Investigator Award, AHA Merit Award, AHA Distinguished Scientist Award, and Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Innovation in Regulatory Science Award. 

Dr. Wu serves on the FDA Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee and board of Keystone Symposia. He is co-founder of  Greenstone Biosciences , a startup that uses clinical genomics, iPSCs, and AI/ML to accelerate drug discovery.

Dr. Wu is an elected member of American Society of Clinical Investigators (ASCI), Association of University Cardiologists (AUC), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), American Association of Physicians (AAP),  American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS),  Academia Sinica (Taiwan) , National Academy of Inventors  (NAI), and National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Dr. Wu is also President of the American Heart Association .

Albert Y. Wu, MD, PhD, FACS

Assistant professor of ophthalmology.

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Dr. Wu is a board-certified ophthalmologist and a fellowship-trained specialist in oculoplastic and orbital surgery. This specialty is dedicated to care of the eyelid and other structures around the eye. It is also called ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery. Dr. Wu focuses his expertise on saving people’s vision. He provides comprehensive, compassionate care for both adults and children with sight-threatening diseases and injuries of the eye and surrounding area. He treats tearing, eyelid drooping, thyroid eye disease, eyelid tumors, and other facial disorders. He also performs facial rejuvenation as well as reconstructive and aesthetic surgery procedures. Dr. Wu is a national leader in advancing the use of stem cell therapy to treat conditions involving the eye and face. His research explores how stem cells can regenerate a patient’s own tissues for potential transplant. His goal is to make regenerative medicine an accepted treatment for people worldwide suffering from diseases of the eye. The National Eye Institute funded Dr. Wu’s research to develop stem cell therapies to treat corneal blindness and regenerate the surface of the eye. He leads the Stanford Ophthalmic Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory and is developing leading-edge treatments for vision loss and eye disease. He also has participated as a principal investigator in research projects including “The Human Eye Cell Atlas.” The goal of this project is to create a reference atlas of all cell types in the human eye. Dr. Wu is also helping to lead a groundbreaking study of a strategy for reconstruction of the surface of the eye. These projects are among more than a dozen involving Dr. Wu that have explored innovations in medication and surgical technique for eye disorders. He has co-authored articles on his research discoveries in JAMA Ophthalmology, Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology, Retina, Medical Research and Innovations, and many other peer-reviewed publications. He is an article reviewer for publications including the American Journal of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and Human Gene Therapy. He also has contributed to chapters in the textbooks Ophthalmology and Ophthalmologic Oncology: Mount Sinai Expert Guides. Dr. Wu has presented the findings of his research at numerous international, national, and local conferences. They include meetings of the North American Society of Academic Oculoplastic Surgeons, Endocrine Society, American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS), and others. Topics have included the stem cells and other approaches to perform regeneration procedures on the eye. Dr. Wu has earned honors for his clinical, research, and academic achievements. He has won awards from the National Institutes of Health, American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the University of Washington, and Yale University.

Clinical Focus

• Ophthalmic Reconstructive & Facial Plastic Surgery
• Orbital Oncology
• Mohs Reconstruction & Eyelid Surgery
• Facial Nerve Palsy
• Thyroid Eye Disease
• Lacrimal and Tear Duct Surgery
• Eyelid Surgery and Reconstruction
• Ptosis Repair
• Ocular Surface Reconstruction
• Blepharoplasty
• Cosmetic Surgery & Treatments
• Pediatric Oculoplastics
• Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

Academic Appointments

• Assistant Professor - University Medical Line, Ophthalmology
• Member, Bio-X
• Member, SPARK at Stanford
• Member, Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI)
• Faculty Fellow, Sarafan ChEM-H
• Member, Stanford Cancer Institute
• Member, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

Administrative Appointments

• Director of Oculoplastics Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Stanford School of Medicine (2017 - Present)

Honors & Awards

• Dr. Solomon Silver Award in Clinical Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2016)
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2015)
• Faculty Council Award for Academic Excellence, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2015)
• Honorary Member, Romanian Association of Plastic Surgery (2015)
• Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2013)
• ASOPRS Fellowship, American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (2009)
• Young Investigator Award, 1st International Conference on cGMP (2003)
• Biology of Aging Fellowship, National Institute of Health (1998)
• Parrett Scholarship, University of Washington (1998)
• Poncin Award, University of Washington (1998)
• Medical Scientist Training Program, National Institute of Health (1995)
• Richter Fellowship, Yale University (1994)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

• Fellow, American College of Surgeons (2016 - Present)
• Scientific Review Committee, Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Congress (2016 - 2016)
• Information Technology Committee, American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (2015 - Present)
• Scientific Review Committee, Fight for Sight (2015 - Present)
• Education Committee, American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (2014 - Present)
• Advocacy and Public Outreach Committee, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (2013 - Present)
• Fellow, American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (2013 - Present)

Professional Education

• Residency: University of Utah Ophthalmology Residency (2009) UT
• Board Certification: American Board of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology (2013)
• Fellowship: Toronto University Ocuplastic and Orbital Surgery Fellowship (2011) Canada
• Internship: University of Utah Internal Medicine Residency (2006) UT
• Medical Education: University of Washington School of Medicine (2005) WA
• PhD, University of Washington, Molecular and Cellular Biology
• BS, Yale University, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry

Community and International Work

Surgical mission for patients in need

Partnering Organization(s)

Virtue Foundation

Populations Served

International

Ongoing Project

Opportunities for student involvement.

Ophthalmology

• 650-725-5572 (office)
• (650) 723-6995 (office)

Additional Clinical Info

• Stanford Health Care
• Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley

Additional Info

• Wu Research Team Web Site

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

My goal is to perform translational research, bringing breakthroughs in stem cell biology and tissue engineering to clinical ophthalmology and reconstructive surgery. Over 6 million people worldwide are afflicted with corneal blindness, usually caused by chemical and thermal burns, ocular cicatricial pemphigoid, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, microbial infections, or chronic inflammation. These injuries often result in corneal vascularization, conjunctivalization, scarring, and opacification from limbal epithelial stem cell (LSC) deficiency (LSCD), for which there is currently no durable treatment. Bilateral LSCD is particular devastating not only because of lost quality of life and social productivity, but because unlike most retinal diseases that affect the aged, LSCD largely affects the relatively young. The most promising cure for bilateral LSCD is finding an autologous source of limbal epithelial cells for transplantation. Utilizing recent advances in the field of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), my research aims to create a reliable and renewable source of limbal epithelial cells for potential use in treating human eye diseases. These cells will be grown on resorbable biomatrices to generate stable transplantable corneal tissue. These studies will serve as the basis for human clinical trials and make regenerative medicine a reality for those with sight-threatening disease. On a broader level, this experimental approach could serve as a paradigm for the creation of other transplantable tissue for use throughout the body. Stem cell biology has the potential to influence every field of medicine and will revolutionize the way we perform surgery.

2023-24 Courses

• Undergraduate Research OPHT 199 (Aut, Win, Spr)

Stanford Advisees

• Med Scholar Project Advisor Charbel Bou Khalil , Gun Min Youn
• Postdoctoral Faculty Sponsor Hala Dhowre , Aditi Swarup

All Publications

Hormones mediate long-range cell communication and play vital roles in physiology, metabolism, and health. Traditionally, endocrinologists have focused on one hormone or organ system at a time. Yet, hormone signaling by its very nature connects cells of different organs and involves crosstalk of different hormones. Here, we leverage the organism-wide single cell transcriptional atlas of a non-human primate, the mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), to systematically map source and target cells for 84 classes of hormones. This work uncovers previously-uncharacterized sites of hormone regulation, and shows that the hormonal signaling network is densely connected, decentralized, and rich in feedback loops. Evolutionary comparisons of hormonal genes and their expression patterns show that mouse lemur better models human hormonal signaling than mouse, at both the genomic and transcriptomic levels, and reveal primate-specific rewiring of hormone-producing/target cells. This work complements the scale and resolution of classical endocrine studies and sheds light on primate hormone regulation.

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-46070-9

View details for PubMedID 38467625

View details for PubMedCentralID 1540572

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0000000000002612

View details for PubMedID 38427839

The purpose of this study is to assess the research productivity and gender of award recipients of ophthalmology research awards in international societies.This is a retrospective, observational study. The study population included award recipients of research awards from 36 ophthalmologic societies (listed on the International Council of Ophthalmology database) in 99 years (1922-2021). A gender-specific pronoun and a photograph of each award recipient were extracted from professional websites to assign their gender. Research productivity levels were retrieved from the Elsevier Scopus author database. The main outcome measures were gender distribution of award recipients per year, mean h-index per year, mean m-quotient per year, mean h-index by society, and mean m-quotient by society.Out of 2506 recipients for 122 awards, 1897 (75.7%) were men and 609 (24.3%) were women. The proportion of woman recipients increased from 0% in 1922 to 41.0% in 2021. Compared with 2000-2010 (19.8%, 109 of 550), women received a greater proportion of awards (48.4%, 459 of 949) in the last decade, from 2011 to 2021. Furthermore, men more often had greater h-index scores and m-quotient scores.Women received awards (24.3%) at a lower rate than men (75.7%) while also exhibiting lower productivity, supporting the existence of a gender disparity. Our study found that women are under-represented in research awards, and further investigation into award selection processes and gender membership data is recommended.

View details for DOI 10.1136/bmjophth-2023-001323

View details for PubMedID 38417914

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10900313

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0000000000002576

View details for PubMedID 38241627

Traumatic optic neuropathy (TON) is a devastating condition that can occur after blunt or penetrating trauma to the head, leading to visual impairment or blindness. Despite these debilitating effects, no clinically available therapeutic targets neuroprotection or promotes axon regeneration in this or any optic neuropathy. Limited data in large animal models is a major obstacle to advancing treatments toward clinical therapeutics. To address this issue, we refined a surgical model of TON in Yucatan minipigs. First, we validated the model by demonstrating visual impairment by flash visual-evoked potential and retinal ganglion cell degeneration and death. Next, we developed and optimized a delivery method and non-toxic dosing of intravitreal brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). Finally, we showed that intravitreal injection of BDNF and cAMP rescued visual function and protected against retinal ganglion cell death and optic nerve axon degeneration. Together these data in a pre-clinical large animal model advance our understanding of and ability to model TON and further identify and develop candidate clinical therapeutics.

View details for DOI 10.1172/jci.insight.172935

View details for PubMedID 38194296

Although women remain historically underrepresented in medical achievement awards, gender distribution of award recipients in ophthalmology in Canada remain to be explored based on research productivity metrics.To characterize the gender distribution of award recipients among the main Canadian national ophthalmological societies and subspecialty affiliates based on research productivity, graduate degrees, affiliated institution, and award type.Retrospective, observational study.Award recipients were selected from the Canadian Ophthalmological Society (COS), Canadian Association of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (CAPOS); Canadian Cornea, External Disease, and Refractive Surgery Society (CCEDRSS); Canadian Council of Ophthalmology Residents (CCOR) Research Proposal Award; and Canadian Glaucoma Society (CGS). The recipients' gender was determined by web search for the gender-specific pronoun, profile photograph check, or using Gender-API. Outcomes included gender distribution of recipients per award, society, year, and training level and differences in research productivity.Thirteen special awards were given to 255 recipients (215 individuals) from 1995 to 2022. In total, 31% of recipients were women, the majority being from Canada. Women had a significantly lower median h-index (2.0 (0-62) women versus 4.0 (0-81) men, p = 0.001) and number of published documents (3.0 (0-213) women versus 8.0 (0-447) men, p < 0.001). On stratified analyses by type of award (research or lifetime achievement) and level of training (trainee or ophthalmologist), significant differences were found for mean h-index and number of publications for awardees within the research category (p = 0.01 and p = 0.02, respectively) and trainee level (p = 0.01 and p = 0.02, respectively). Overall, women's proportion rates in awards did not reach parity in 27 out of the 28 years analyzed.Women were confirmed to be historically minored in proportion among the prominent society awards in Canada, with attested research disparity possibly explaining some of this bias. These findings require further confirmation in larger cohorts accounting for additional educational, institutional, and provincial factors.Not applicable.

View details for DOI 10.1177/17455057231219613

View details for PubMedID 38130083

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10748528

Defining the regenerative response following various types of corneal chemical and mechanical injuries is important for understanding the pathophysiology of the injury and evaluating the effectiveness of the therapies. This study characterizes corneal epithelial healing in a murine chemical and mechanical injury model.Four groups of 10 mice each received complete corneolimbal injuries by AlgerBrush, AlgerBrush/thermal, NaOH (0.5 N), or ethanol. Slit-lamp and optical coherence tomography examinations were performed daily for 14 days. Corneal opacity (CO) and neovascularization (NV) were evaluated. The origin of the regenerated epithelium was illustrated by anti-cytokeratin 12 (K12) and anti-K13. The height of regenerated corneal epithelium and intraepithelial free nerve endings (FNEs) stained with anti-βIII-tubulin were measured. The amount of fibrosis was measured by anti-α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) monoclonal antibody in the different groups. Statistical analysis was performed by ANOVA and t-test.Corneal opacity and neovascularization were markedly higher in the NaOH and AlgerBrush/thermal groups. Molecular studies revealed the following: Regenerated corneal epithelium thickness was less than normal in all groups, the AlgerBrush group had the shortest height of the regenerated epithelium, βIII-tubulin was expressed in the entire height of corneal epithelium in all groups except in the AlgerBrush group, and K12 was replaced by K13 in all groups.Corneal wound healing is more effective following chemical injuries in terms of epithelial thickness. Inflammation may play an important role in the outcome.Inflammation following different injuries may be redirected to be more effective in corneal regeneration and clarity.

View details for DOI 10.1167/tvst.12.12.12

View details for PubMedID 38085248

Corneal organoids are useful tools for disease modeling and tissue transplantation; however, they have not yet been well studied during maturation. We characterized human iPSC-derived corneal organoids at 1, 2, 3, and 4 months of development using single-cell RNA sequencing to determine the cellular heterogeneity at each stage. We found pluripotent cell clusters committed to epithelial cell lineage at 1 month; early corneal epithelial, endothelial, and stromal cell markers at 2 months; keratocytes as the largest cell population at 3 months; and a large epithelial cell population at 4 months. We compared organoid to fetal corneal development at different stages and found that 4-month organoids closely resemble the corneal cellular complexity of the fetal (16 post conception week) and adult cornea. Using RNA velocity trajectory analysis, we found that less differentiated cells appear to give rise to corneal epithelial cells during development.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.stemcr.2023.10.022

View details for PubMedID 38039970

View details for Web of Science ID 001134511000001

The Algerbrush II has been widely used to induce corneal and limbal injuries in animal models. The extent of injury varies with the duration of exposure, pressure from the placement of the burr, and the size of the burr. However, no study has explored the correlation between the duration of exposure and the severity of injury in mouse model with corneal and limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) induced using the Algerbrush II. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the variations in the severity of corneal and limbal injury with different durations of the Algerbrush II application.The entire cornea and limbus of C57BL/6 mice were injured for 30-45 s, 60-75 s, 90-120 s, and 3-4 min. Photography and slit-lamp examination was performed on days 0, 2, 4, and 7, followed by hematoxylin & eosin, periodic acid-Schiff, and immunohistochemical staining. Statistical analysis was performed using one way ANOVA analysis.A duration of 30-45 s of injury was found to be sufficient to induce superficial corneal and limbal epithelial debridement and re-epithelialization was completed in all eyes by day 7; however, clinical signs of LSCD were not observed in all mice. Increasing the exposure time to 90-120 s resulted in central 2+ corneal opacity with limbal and paracentral corneal neovascularization. All eyes injured for 3-4 min displayed clinical signs of LSCD, such as persistent epithelial defects on day 7 after the injury, central corneal neovascularization, and 2.2+ diffuse corneal opacity. Histological signs of LSCD, including goblet cell metaplasia and K13 expression on the corneal surface, were observed in all injured eyes.Our findings suggest that the duration of injury is an important factor influencing the severity of LSCD in a murine model of injury. A 1-mm rotating burr was found to be more effective for keratectomy and pigment release, whereas a 0.5-mm burr was more suitable for corneal epithelial debridement.

View details for PubMedID 38222449

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10784216

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0000000000002534

View details for PubMedID 37922050

OBJECTIVE: Functional outcomes following facial and ocular trauma are time-sensitive and require prompt evaluation to minimise long-term vision loss, yet few studies have systematically evaluated disparities in the management of these cases. This study investigates whether a patient's race/ethnicity, primary language, insurance status, gender or age affects receipt of ophthalmology consultation for facial trauma.METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This study was a retrospective cohort analysis of patients from the Elmhurst City Hospital Trauma Registry in Queens, New York who were seen for facial trauma including open globe injuries and orbital fractures between January 2014 and May 2016.RESULTS: Of the 264 patients included, 43% reported as Hispanic, 23% white, 11% Asian, 8% black and 15% other/unknown. After controlling for confounding variables by multivariable logistic regression, neither race/ethnicity, gender, nor primary language were significantly associated with the likelihood of receiving an ophthalmology consult. However, patients with private insurance had 2.57 times greater odds of receiving an ophthalmology consultation than those with Medicaid or state corrections insurance (95%CI 1.37 to 4.95). As age increased, the likelihood of receiving an ophthalmology consultation decreased (p=0.009); patients 60 years of age and older had one-third the odds of ophthalmology consultation as younger patients (OR 0.33; 95%CI 0.16 to 0.68).CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights that lack of ophthalmology consultation in patients with facial trauma is linked to age and underinsurance. Extra attention must be paid during primary assessments to ensure elderly patients and those with public insurance have equitable access to timely and appropriate care for facial trauma.

View details for DOI 10.1136/bmjophth-2023-001259

View details for PubMedID 37797981

Despite increasing use of cigarettes and electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and related health effects among youth, few studies have reported their effects on eyes.To examine the frequency and severity of ocular symptoms (ocular discomfort, pain, burning, itching, redness, dryness, glare, blurriness, strain, and headaches) in young e-cigarette and cigarette users.In an observational cross-sectional study, a survey conducted in May 6 to 14, 2020, asked participants about use (ever, past 30 days, and past 7 days) of e-cigarettes and cigarettes. The participants included US individuals aged 13 to 24 years.Associations between vision-related outcomes (general vision, severity/frequency of ocular symptoms) and tobacco use were analyzed using weighted multivariable logistic regressions, adjusting for sociodemographic factors, contact lens use, and other combustible use.There were 2168 never users, 2183 ever users, 1092 past 30-day users, and 919 past 7-day users of e-cigarettes; 55.9% of e-cigarette ever users also used cigarettes (dual users). Of the 4351 respondents, 63.8% identified as female, and mean (SD) age was 19.1 (2.9) years. Between 1.1% and 3.9% of ever dual users reported severe to very severe ocular symptoms; between 0.9% and 4.3% reported daily symptoms, which was higher than the proportion of symptoms in e-cigarette- or cigarette-only users. Past 7-day dual users had more severe itching (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 2.37; 95% CI, 1.36-4.13; P = .002), redness (AOR, 2.58; 95% CI, 1.50-4.46; P = .001), dryness (AOR, 2.89; 95% CI, 1.64-5.08; P < .001), glare (AOR, 2.56; 95% CI, 1.50-4.35; P = .001), blurriness (AOR, 2.47; 95% CI, 1.36-4.50; P = .003), headaches (AOR, 2.31; 95% CI, 1.34-4.00; P = .003); and more frequent pain (AOR, 3.45; 95% CI, 2.09-5.68; P < .001), burning (AOR, 3.08; 95% CI, 1.86-5.09; P < .001), and redness (AOR, 2.72; 95% CI, 1.69-4.36; P < .001) than all other participants. Past 30-day dual users had more severe dryness (AOR, 2.65; 95% CI, 1.61-4.36; P < .001) and more frequent pain (AOR, 3.33; 95% CI, 2.12-5.21; P < .001) than all other participants. Ever dual users experienced more severe dryness (AOR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.05-2.43; P = .03) and blurriness (AOR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.21-2.64; P = .003) and more frequent pain (AOR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.13-2.53; P = .01) and blurriness (AOR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.13-2.36; P = .009) than never users.In this cross-sectional US study, adolescents and young adult users of both e-cigarettes and cigarettes had a higher likelihood of experiencing severe and frequent ocular symptoms, with past 7-day users reporting more symptoms than past 30-day users or ever users. These findings provide additional reasons for users of e-cigarettes and cigarettes to reduce their tobacco use to possibly prevent or minimize ocular symptoms.

View details for DOI 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2023.3852

View details for PubMedID 37651129

The cornea is critical for vision, and corneal healing after trauma is fundamental in maintaining its transparency and function. Through the study of corneal injury models, researchers aim to enhance their understanding of how the cornea heals and develop strategies to prevent and manage corneal opacities. Chemical injury is one of the most popular injury models that has extensively been studied on mice. Most previous investigators have used a flat paper soaked in sodium hydroxide to induce corneal injury. However, inducing corneal and limbal injury using flat filter paper is unreliable, since the mouse cornea is highly curved. Here, we present a new instrument, a modified biopsy punch, that enables the researchers to create a well-circumscribed, localized, and evenly distributed alkali injury to the murine cornea and limbus. This punch-trephine method enables researchers to induce an accurate and reproducible chemical burn to the entire murine cornea and limbus while leaving other structures, such as the eyelids, unaffected by the chemical. Moreover, this study introduces an enucleation technique that preserves the medial caruncle as a landmark for identifying the nasal side of the globe. The bulbar and palpebral conjunctiva, and lacrimal gland are also kept intact using this technique. Ophthalmologic examinations were performed via slit lamp biomicroscope and fluorescein staining on days 0, 1, 2, 6, 8, and 14 post-injury. Clinical, histological, and immunohistochemical findings confirmed limbal stem cell deficiency and ocular surface regeneration failure in all experimental mice. The presented alkali corneal injury model is ideal for studying limbal stem cell deficiency, corneal inflammation, and fibrosis. This method is also suitable for investigating pre-clinical and clinical efficacies of topical ophthalmologic medications on the murine corneal surface.

View details for DOI 10.3791/65609

View details for PubMedID 37590514

View details for DOI 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2023.3110

View details for PubMedID 37471067

View details for Web of Science ID 001053795606146

View details for Web of Science ID 001053795601122

To characterize the epidemiology, associated complications, and risk factors of orbital floor fractures in a nationwide longitudinal health insurance database.Claims data from a million randomly selected registered residents from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database were analyzed between 2001 and 2011 as part of a retrospective cohort review. Patients were identified using the International Classification of Disease-9 diagnosis codes for orbital floor fracture (closed: 802.6; open: 802.7). The cases were categorized as surgical or nonsurgical based on the procedure codes and compared statistically.From 2001 to 2011, 663 patients were diagnosed with orbital floor fractures out of a total population at risk of 9,836,431 person-years (average incidence: 6.78 persons/100,000/year) with overall increasing incidence. Surgical treatments were performed in 213 (32%) patients. Patients who received surgical treatment were younger than those who did not (mean age 25.3 ± 13.6 years vs. 34.2 ± 18.6 years, P < 0.001). The diagnosis with diplopia was a significantly associated factor for surgical treatment (2.2% in nonsurgery group vs. 6.6% in surgery group, P = 0.007). Male gender (adjusted hazard ratios [aHR] = 2.1, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.79-2.49) and low monthly income (aHR = 1.76, 95% CI: 1.16-2.67) were the risk factors for orbital floor fracture.The incidence of orbital floor fractures increased in the Taiwanese population between 2001 and 2011. Men and low income patients were at increased risk of orbital floor fracture. More research is necessary to clarify what factors are driving the escalating incidence of orbital fractures in this national population.

View details for DOI 10.4103/tjo.TJO-D-23-00005

View details for PubMedID 37484620

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10361428

View details for DOI 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2023.1739

View details for PubMedID 37166808

Elucidating the cellular and genetic composition of ocular tissues is essential for uncovering the pathophysiology of ocular diseases. Since the introduction of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) in 2009, vision researchers have performed extensive single-cell analyses to better understand transcriptome complexity and heterogeneity of ocular structures. This technology has revolutionized our ability to identify rare cell populations and to make cross-species comparisons of gene expression in both steady state and disease conditions. Importantly, single-cell transcriptomic analyses have enabled the identification of cell-type specific gene markers and signalling pathways between ocular cell populations. While most scRNA-seq studies have been conducted on retinal tissues, large-scale transcriptomic atlases pertaining to the ocular anterior segment have also been constructed in the past three years. This timely review provides vision researchers with an overview of scRNA-seq experimental design, technical limitations, and clinical applications in a variety of anterior segment-related ocular pathologies. We review open-access anterior segment-related scRNA-seq datasets and illustrate how scRNA-seq can be an indispensable tool for the development of targeted therapeutics.

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41433-023-02539-3

View details for PubMedID 37138096

View details for PubMedCentralID 6421592

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important cause of death and disability worldwide. The literature estimates that 45% of IPV injuries involve the eyes. Many medical fields have increased IPV-related research; however, ophthalmology IPV research remains rare.To evaluate the epidemiologic pattern and injury mechanism of IPV related to ocular trauma.This study was a retrospective cross-sectional analysis with deidentified data using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) codes from the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB), which is a data set collected by the American College of Surgeons. The NTDB is the largest US hospitalized trauma case database with submissions from more than 900 US facilities. Included in this analysis were the IPV-related ocular injuries of patients hospitalized between 2017 and 2019. Study data were analyzed from April 20 to October 15, 2022.IPV-related ocular injuries.Ocular injuries and adult IPV trauma survivors were identified with the ICD-10-CM codes. The following demographic data were collected: sex, age, race and ethnicity, health insurance plan, substance misuse screening results, trauma level of hospital, the emergency department disposition, the total Glasgow Coma Scale score, the abbreviated injury scale, and caregiver at discharge.A total of 2598 of the recorded ocular injuries were associated with IPV. Patients had a mean (SD) age of 45.2 (18.4) years, and 1618 were female (62.3%). Most patients in the population sample (1195 [46.0%]) were aged 18 to 39 years. The race and ethnicity distribution was as follows: 629 Black (24.2%), 296 Hispanic (11.4%), 1358 White (52.3%), 229 other (8.8%), and 86 missing (3.3%). Insurance statuses were Medicaid (847 [32.6%]), Medicare (524 [20.2%]), private insurance (524 [20.2%]), and self-pay (488 [18.8%]). Women had greater odds of testing positive during alcohol screening (odds ratio [OR], 1.42; 95% CI, 1.21-1.67; P < .001). Black patients were most likely to have Medicaid (OR, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.35-1.99; P < .001), Hispanic patients were most likely to self-pay (OR, 1.96, 95% CI, 1.48-2.58; P < .001), and White patients were most likely to use Medicare (OR, 2.94, 95% CI, 2.33-3.73; P < .001).Social determinants of health were identified as key risk factors for IPV-related ocular injuries. Study findings highlight identifiable risk factors associated with IPV and ocular trauma that can contribute to IPV awareness among ophthalmologists.

View details for DOI 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2023.0578

View details for PubMedID 36995733

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10064286

Recommendations of clinical guidelines affect physicians' care delivery. Potential bias and undeclared conflicts of interests (COIs) among guideline authors can impact clinical practice decisions.To assess financial disclosures reported by physician authors of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Practice Pattern Guidelines compared with those reported by industry to evaluate the disclosures' accuracy.In this cross-sectional study, all clinical guidelines in the AAO Preferred Practice Patterns (PPP) since 2013 (first year with publicly available industry payment reports) were reviewed on May 1, 2022. Guideline physician authors' name and their reported COI disclosure were extracted from the guideline publication. Payments to physician authors reported by industry were retrieved from the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Open Payments database. Physician authors serving on the AAO guideline committee were included.The primary outcome measure was the accuracy of authors' COIs disclosure. Secondary outcome measures were payments to physician authors reported by industry, the types of payments, and authors' gender.A total of 24 AAO guidelines released between 2016 and 2020 were included. Per guideline, there was a mean (SD) of 7.83 (2.24) physician authors. After removing 14 nonphysician authors, 188 physician author names remained, including 83 names assigned as women (44.1%) and 105 names assigned as men (55.9%). Authors could be counted multiple times in these 188 names. According to the Open Payments database, industry reported that 112 of 188 physician authors (59.6%) had at least received 1 payment while serving on the guideline committee, with a payment mean (SD) of $29 849.35 ($54 131.56). According to AAO guidelines, 149 authors (79.3%) had no financial disclosures while serving on the guideline committee. Among these 149 authors, most authors (81 [54.4%]) had payments reported by industry on the Open Payments database not disclosed within the guideline reports. Women physicians were paid significantly more than men for total payments (median [IQR] payments, $15 265 [$598.47-$41 104.67] vs $301.48 [$218.85-$14 615.09]; difference, $14 963.52; P = .003).Industry reported physician guideline authors to have received significant industry payments, some of which were not disclosed within information of the guidelines. To strengthen author transparency regarding these reported disclosures, the authors may want to review and resolve such potential discrepancies during the review and subsequent publication of guidelines.

View details for DOI 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2023.0267

View details for PubMedID 36928457

PRCIS: Glaucoma surgeons are highly rated by the general public. Physicians with shorter wait times and who are younger are more likely to have higher ratings. Women glaucoma physicians are less likely to have higher ratings.PURPOSE: Find what characteristics of glaucoma physicians are associated with higher online ratings.PATENTS AND METHODS: All American members of the American Glaucoma Society (AGS) were queried on Healthgrades, Vitals, and Yelp. Ratings, medical school ranking, region of practice, gender, age, and wait times were recorded.RESULTS: 1106 (78.2%) of AGS members had at least one review across the three platforms. The average score among glaucoma surgeons was 4.160 (0.898 standard deviation, SD). Women physicians were associated with lower online ratings (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.536 [95% CI 0.354-0.808). Physicians with less than 30 minutes of wait time had higher ratings: 15-30 minutes wait time (aOR 2.273 [95% CI 1.430-3.636]) and <15-minute wait time (aOR 3.102 [95% CI 1.888-5.146]). Older physicians had lower ratings (aOR 0.384 [95% CI 0.255-0.572]).CONCLUSIONS: Public online ratings of glaucoma specialists in the United States appear to favour those of younger age, men, and those with shorter wait times.

View details for DOI 10.1097/IJG.0000000000002189

View details for PubMedID 36795534

Objectives: Primary cilia are conserved organelles found in polarized mammalian cells that regulate neuronal growth, migration, and differentiation. Proper cilia formation is essential during eye development. Our previous reports found that both amacrine and retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) contain primary cilia in primate and rodent retinas. However, whether primary cilia are present in the inner retina of human retinal organoids remains unknown. The purpose of this study is to characterize the primary cilia distribution in human embryonic stem cell (hESC-derived retinal organoid development.Materials and Methods: Retinal organoids were differentiated from a hESC line, harvested at various developmental timepoints (day 44-day 266), and immunostained with antibodies for primary cilia, including Arl13b (for the axoneme), AC3, and Centrin3 (for the basal body). AP2alpha, Prox1, GAD67, Calretinin, GFAP, PKCalpha, and Chx10 antibodies as well as Brn3b-promoted tdTomato expression were used to visualize retinal cell types.Results: A group of ciliated cells were present in the inner aspects of retinal organoids from day 44 to day 266 in culture. Ciliated Chx10-positive retinal progenitor cells, GFAP-positive astrocytes, and PKCalpha-positive rod-bipolar cells were detected later during development (day 176 to day 266). Ciliation persisted during all stages of retinal developmental in AP2alpha-positive amacrine cells, but it was decreased in Brn3b-positive retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) at later time points. Additionally, AC3-positive astrocytes significantly decreased during the later stages of organoid formation.Conclusions: Amacrine cells in retinal organoids retain cilia throughout development, whereas RGC ciliation gradually and progressively decreases with organoid maturation.

View details for DOI 10.1155/2023/6494486

View details for PubMedID 36684387

To review the pathway to care for treatment and management of patients receiving visual and vestibular rehabilitation after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).English scientific peer-reviewed articles from PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and PsycINFO between 2000 and 2020 were first screened by title and abstract, then those selected underwent full-text review and analysis.The database search yielded 1640 results and after title and abstract review, 75 articles were selected for full-text screening, from which 8 were included in the qualitative synthesis. Current evidence includes a limited number of retrospective cohort studies and case studies.Many patients with visual and vestibular deficits following mTBI do not receive rehabilitation services until months following their injury as there is no standardized pathway to care for patients for visual and vestibular rehabilitation. Barriers to establishing a standardized pathway are the lack of natural history data for visual and vestibular function following mTBI and the lack of randomized clinical trials establishing the efficacy of rehabilitation in patients following mTBI.

View details for DOI 10.1080/02699052.2022.2105399

View details for PubMedID 35918848

Purpose: Conjunctival squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a sight-threatening ocular surface malignancy with the primary treatment modality being surgical resection. To evaluate surgical imaging modalities to improve surgical resection, we established a novel murine model for conjunctival SCC to demonstrate the utility of panitumumab-IRDye800, a fluorescently labeled anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody.Methods: NOD-scid IL2Rgammanull (NSG) mice received subconjunctival injection of UM-SCC-1 or SCC-9, head and neck SCC cell lines. On tumor growth, mice were injected with Panitumumab-IRDye800CW, and imaged with a small animal imaging system and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Immunohistochemistry for SCC markers were used to confirm tumor origin.Results: Seventy-five percent (N = 4) of the UM-SCC-1 group developed aggressive, rapidly growing tumors that were P40 and EGFR positive within two weeks of inoculation. The SCC-9 tumors failed to demonstrate any growth (N = 4). Ocular tumors demonstrated high fluorescence levels with a tumor to background ratio of 3.8.Conclusions: Subconjunctival injections are an appropriate technique to create in vivo models for assessing treatment modalities and novel therapies in conjunctival SCC.Translational Relevance: This model demonstrates Panitumumab-IRDye800CW's utility in the ophthalmic setting and suggests that clinical trials may be warranted.

View details for DOI 10.1167/tvst.11.7.23

View details for PubMedID 35895055

View details for Web of Science ID 000844437004144

View details for Web of Science ID 000844401301220

View details for Web of Science ID 000844401302299

Molecular characterization of cell types using single-cell transcriptome sequencing is revolutionizing cell biology and enabling new insights into the physiology of human organs. We created a human reference atlas comprising nearly 500,000 cells from 24 different tissues and organs, many from the same donor. This atlas enabled molecular characterization of more than 400 cell types, their distribution across tissues, and tissue-specific variation in gene expression. Using multiple tissues from a single donor enabled identification of the clonal distribution of T cells between tissues, identification of the tissue-specific mutation rate in B cells, and analysis of the cell cycle state and proliferative potential of shared cell types across tissues. Cell type-specific RNA splicing was discovered and analyzed across tissues within an individual.

View details for DOI 10.1126/science.abl4896

View details for PubMedID 35549404

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41587-022-01293-3

View details for PubMedID 35347330

View details for DOI 10.1097/GOX.0000000000004213

View details for Web of Science ID 000772952700001

Upper and lower blepharoplasty are among the most common procedures in aesthetic surgery and are often emotionally laden due to the subjective nature of outcomes and implications with beauty and self-identity. This article capitalizes on the increasing wealth of patient-provided health information online and is the first to analyze the emotions surrounding blepharoplasty discussions in an open internet health forum, MedHelp.We used Python to scrape MedHelp for threads that contained "blepharoplasty" and then used IBM Watson Natural Language Understanding to perform sentiment analyses, calculating a general sentiment score (-1 to +1) as well as emotion scores for anger, sadness, joy, fear, and disgust (0 to 1) for posts and keywords contained within the posts. Keywords were then manually grouped into five distinct clinical categories: symptoms, doctor, treatment, medication, and body.We collected 52 threads containing "blepharoplasty," yielding 154 posts and 1365 keywords. The average sentiment score was negative among all posts (-0.15) and keywords (-0.30). Among all posts and keywords, sadness had the highest score and disgust had the lowest score.Fear and sadness are the predominant emotions for blepharoplasty patients online, and the most negative symptoms cited are not ones that surgeons typically expect.

View details for PubMedID 35492229

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC9038503

Cell-free RNA from liquid biopsies can be analyzed to determine disease tissue of origin. We extend this concept to identify cell types of origin using the Tabula Sapiens transcriptomic cell atlas as well as individual tissue transcriptomic cell atlases in combination with the Human Protein Atlas RNA consensus dataset. We define cell type signature scores, which allow the inference of cell types that contribute to cell-free RNA for a variety of diseases.

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41587-021-01188-9

View details for PubMedID 35132263

Purpose: To create an alkali injury symblephara mouse model to study conjunctival fibrosis pathophysiology and test polymer nanoparticle (PNP) hydrogel as a preventative therapeutic.Methods: Mice were injured using NaOH-soaked filter paper to determine the optimal NaOH concentration to induce the formation of symblephara. Injured mice were observed for 7 days to detect the formation of symblephara. Forniceal shortening observed on hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained tissue sections was used as a symblephara marker. Alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA) expression, Masson's trichrome assay, and periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining were used to determine myofibroblast expression, collagen deposition, and goblet cell integrity. PNP hydrogel, with multivalent, noncovalent interactions between modified biopolymers and nanoparticles, was applied immediately after alkali injury to determine its ability to prevent the formation of symblephara.Results: Forniceal shortening was observed in H&E images with 1N NaOH for 2 minutes after 7 days without globe destruction. PNP hydrogel prevented forniceal shortening after alkali injury as observed by H&E histology. alpha-SMA expression and collagen deposition in eye tissue sections were increased in the fornix after injury with 1N NaOH compared with uninjured controls. PNP hydrogel treatment immediately after injury reduced alpha-SMA expression and collagen deposition in the forniceal region. Mucin-secreting goblet cells stained with PAS were significantly lower in alkali-injured and PNP hydrogel-treated conjunctivas than in uninjured control conjunctivas.Conclusions: We observed that 1N NaOH for 2 minutes induced maximal forniceal shortening and symblephara in mice. PNP hydrogel prevented forniceal shortening and conjunctival fibrosis after injury. This first murine model for symblephara will be useful to study fibrosis pathophysiology after conjunctival injury and to determine therapeutic targets for cicatrizing diseases.Translational Relevance: This mouse model of symblephara can be useful for studying conjunctival scarring disease pathophysiology and preventative therapeutics. We tested PNP hydrogel, which prevented the formation of symblephara after injury.

View details for DOI 10.1167/tvst.11.2.31

View details for PubMedID 35191963

BACKGROUND: The implementation of OpenNotes and corresponding increase in patient access to medical records requires thorough assessment ofthe risks and benefitsof note-sharing. Ophthalmology notes are unique among medical records in that they extensively utilize non-standardized abbreviations and drawings; they are often indecipherable even to highly-educated clinicians outside of ophthalmology. No studies to date have assessed ophthalmologist perceptions of OpenNotes.METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from 4/28 to 5/12/2016. A survey was distributed to 30 clinicians (25 ophthalmologists, three optometrists, two nurses) in the University of Colorado's Department of Ophthalmology to evaluate provider attitudes towards granting patients access to online medical records.RESULTS: Many clinicians felt patients would have difficulty understanding their records and may be unnecessarily alarmed or offended by them. Some clinicians worried their workload would increase and feared having to change the way they document. Perceived benefits of OpenNotes included improving patient understanding of their medical conditions, strengthening patient-physician trust, and enhancing patient care. Many perceived risks and benefits of note-sharing were associated with conceptions of the ideal clinician-patient relationship.CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians in ophthalmology perceived both benefits and consequences of increasing patient access to ophthalmic records, and there were significant correlations between these perceptions and their conceptions of the clinician-patient relationship. This is the first study to assess potential ophthalmology provider attitudes toward sharing ophthalmic records. Although limited in sample size and power, this study demonstrates some ways patient-accessible ophthalmic records can affect the clinical practice of ophthalmology and emphasizes the unique challenges of OpenNotes in ophthalmology.

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41433-021-01775-9

View details for PubMedID 34611314

View details for DOI 10.7554/eLife.70692.sa2

View details for Web of Science ID 000715795700001

View details for DOI 10.3389/fneur.2021.715428

View details for Web of Science ID 000690622300003

Gender disparity in the field of neurology impedes scientific advancements and innovations. In 2018, 45.0% of neurology and neurological subspecialty residents were women. Despite a notable rise in the proportion of women neurologists over the past decades, inequalities regarding publication proportions between men and women persist in the field. This cohort study examines authorship trends in articles published in 155 international neurology journals, identified as those listed in the annual Journal Citation Reports' "Clinical Neurology" section. Authors' names, authorship positions and countries of affiliation were extracted from PubMed for indexed articles published from 1946 to 2020. Gender-API (a validated and highly accurate application program interface) assigned binary genders to authors. Author gender proportions were compared across subspecialties, authorship position and years. In 303,385 unique articles, 1,663,036 total authors were identified of which 34.1% were women. Neuroradiology demonstrated the lowest proportion of women authors (21.3%), while neurogenetics displayed the highest (44.5%). In articles with multiple authors, both men and women last authors were more likely to publish with a male first author, though this was significantly more pronounced for men last authors (1.86 vs. 1.08; p < 0.001). From 2002 to 2020, women remained in the minority of last (24.6%), first (36.2%), and middle author positions (35.8%). The authorship gender distribution in neurological journals neither reflects the gender proportion of neurologists in the field overall nor in any subspecialty examined. We also find a tendency for senior and junior authors of the same gender to publish together which perpetuates authorship inequity. Further work is needed to identify underlying causes so that interventions might be developed to improve authorship diversity.

View details for PubMedID 34497579

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8419229

View details for Web of Science ID 000690761100290

View details for Web of Science ID 000690760500066

BACKGROUND: Clinical data in social media are an underused source of information with great potential to allow for a deeper understanding of patient values, attitudes, and preferences.OBJECTIVE: This tutorial aims to describe a novel, robust, and modular method for the sentiment analysis and emotion detection of free text from web-based forums and the factors to consider during its application.METHODS: We mined the discussion and user information of all posts containing search terms related to a medical subspecialty (oculoplastics) from MedHelp, the largest web-based platform for patient health forums. We used data cleaning and processing tools to define the relevant subset of results and prepare them for sentiment analysis. We executed sentiment and emotion analyses by using IBM Watson Natural Language Understanding to generate sentiment and emotion scores for the posts and their associated keywords. The keywords were aggregated using natural language processing tools.RESULTS: Overall, 39 oculoplastic-related search terms resulted in 46,381 eligible posts within 14,329 threads. Posts were written by 18,319 users (117 doctors; 18,202 patients) and included 201,611 associated keywords. Keywords that occurred ≥500 times in the corpus were used to identify the most prominent topics, including specific symptoms, medication, and complications. The sentiment and emotion scores of these keywords and eligible posts were analyzed to provide concrete examples of the potential of this methodology to allow for a better understanding of patients' attitudes. The overall sentiment score reflects a positive, neutral, or negative sentiment, whereas the emotion scores (anger, disgust, fear, joy, and sadness) represent the likelihood of the presence of the emotion. In keyword grouping analyses, medical signs, symptoms, and diseases had the lowest overall sentiment scores (-0.598). Complications were highly associated with sadness (0.485). Forum posts mentioning body parts were related to sadness (0.416) and fear (0.321). Administration was the category with the highest anger score (0.146). The top 6 forum subgroups had an overall negative sentiment score; the most negative one was the Neurology forum, with a score of -0.438. The Undiagnosed Symptoms forum had the highest sadness score (0.448). The least likely fearful posts were those from the Eye Care forum, with a score of 0.260. The overall sentiment score was much more negative before the doctor replied. The anger, disgust, fear, and sadness emotion scores decreased in likelihood, whereas joy was slightly more likely to be expressed after doctors replied.CONCLUSIONS: This report allows physicians and researchers to efficiently mine and perform sentiment analysis on social media to better understand patients' perspectives and promote patient-centric care. Important factors to be considered during its application include evaluating the scope of the search; selecting search terms and understanding their linguistic usages; and establishing selection, filtering, and processing criteria for posts and keywords tailored to the desired results.

View details for DOI 10.2196/20803

View details for PubMedID 33999001

There are currently no effective methods to prevent or durably treat ocular symblephara, the adhesions between the palpebral and bulbar conjunctiva. How symblephara form at the molecular level is largely unknown. We present here an overview of current clinical symblephara treatments and describe potential molecular mechanisms behind conjunctival adhesion formation that may inform future symblephara treatment and prevention options. Understanding how symblephara form at the molecular level will facilitate treatment development. Preventative therapies may be possible by targeting symblephara progenitor cells immediately after injuries, while novel therapeutics should be aimed at modulating TGF-beta pathways and effector cells in conjunctival scarring to treat symblephara formation more effectively.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.survophthal.2021.04.008

View details for PubMedID 33932469

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0000000000001658

View details for PubMedID 33877060

View details for Web of Science ID 000729283603087

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic increased the gender gap in academic publishing. This study assesses COVID-19's impact on ophthalmology gender authorship distribution and compares the gender authorship proportion of COVID-19 ophthalmology-related articles to previous ophthalmology articles.METHODS: This cohort study includes authors listed in all publications related to ophthalmology in the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset and CDC COVID-19 research database. Articles from 65 ophthalmology journals from January to July 2020 were selected. All previous articles published in the same journals were extracted from PubMed. Gender-API determined authors' gender.RESULTS: Out of 119,457 COVID-19-related articles, we analyzed 528 ophthalmology-related articles written by 2518 authors. Women did not exceed 40% in any authorship positions and were most likely to be middle, first, and finally, last authors. The proportions of women in all authorship positions from the 2020 COVID-19 group (29.6% first, 31.5% middle, 22.1% last) are significantly lower compared to the predicted 2020 data points (37.4% first, 37.0% middle, 27.6% last) (p<.01). The gap between the proportion of female authors in COVID-19 ophthalmology research and the 2020 ophthalmology-predicted proportion (based on 2002-2019 data) is 6.1% for overall authors, 7.8% for first authors, and 5.5% for last and middle authors. The 2020 COVID-19 authorship group (1925 authors) was also compared to the 2019 group (33,049 authors) based on journal category (clinical/basic science research, general/subspecialty ophthalmology, journal impact factor).CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 amplified the authorship gender gap in ophthalmology. When compared to previous years, there was a greater decrease in women's than men's academic productivity.

View details for DOI 10.1007/s00417-021-05085-4

View details for PubMedID 33537883

Despite increasing numbers of women oculoplastic surgeons, they remain underrepresented within the subspecialty. The purpose of this study was to analyze trends in gender authorship within the field of ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery.This retrospective observational study sampled articles published in Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (OPRS) and Orbit during the years 1985, 1995, 2005, 2015, and 2020. Data reviewed included article type, total number of authors, and the gender of each article's first and senior author.Nine hundred ninety-nine articles were analyzed, including 701 in OPRS and 298 in Orbit. Of 3,716 total authors, 1,151 (31%) were women, including 297 (29.7%) first authors, and 191 (21.5%) senior authors. Women authorship in OPRS in 1985 (first, 3.9%; senior, 3.3%; all, 3.2%) significantly increased by 2020 (first, 44.6%; senior, 27.9%; all, 42%). Women authorship in Orbit in 1985 (first, 0%; senior, 4.5%; all, 7.4%) also significantly increased by 2020 (first, 43.3%; senior, 34%; all, 42.9%). In a subanalysis of OPRS original investigations alone, women first authorship increased from 3.1% in 1985 to 35.8% in 2020 (p < 0.001) and women senior authorship increased from 4.3% in 1985 to 25% in 2020 (p = 0.001). In a subanalysis of Orbit original investigations alone, women first authorship increased from 0% in 1985 to 65.4% in 2020 (p < 0.001) and women senior authorship increased from 5.3% in 1985 to 42.3% in 2020 (p < 0.001).Despite a significant increase in women authorship over the past several decades, women remain underrepresented within the oculoplastic literature, particularly in regard to senior authorship. When considering original investigations alone, there has been a significant increase in women first and senior authorship in both OPRS and Orbit.

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0000000000002013

View details for PubMedID 34293783

To assess the gender distribution of major ophthalmology society awards.Retrospective, observational study.The study population included award recipients from nine ophthalmological societies: American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS), American Glaucoma Society (AGS), American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS), American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS), American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS), American Uveitis Society (AUS), Cornea Society, and North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society (NANOS). A gender-specific pronoun and photograph of each award recipient were extracted from professional websites to assign their gender. Main outcome measures were gender distribution by award society, year (1970-2020), type (lectureship or not), category (achievement, education, research contribution, research item, international member achievement, public service - global health, service to society), and training level.Out of 2,150 recipients for 78 awards, 1,606 (74.7%) were men and 544 (25.3%) were women. The proportion of women recipients increased from 0% in 1970 to 33.2% in 2020 (P<0.001). Women representation varied within each society (P<0.01), with ASCRS having the highest percentage (40.8%). Women received 11.0% of awards accompanied by a lecture. Women received significantly greater research-related awards than achievement or service awards. Awards for trainees and early-career ophthalmologists had a greater proportion of women (39.8%) than the rest of the awards (21.5%) (P<0.001).Overall women received awards (25.3%) at a higher prevalence than the average 1970-2020 American gender distributions of ophthalmologists. However, women are still underrepresented in many award categories and subspecialties.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ajo.2021.05.021

View details for PubMedID 34102152

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges for oculoplastic surgeons worldwide, in terms of care delivery, medical equipment and at-risk patient management. To date, there are no centralized or compiled international COVID-19 guidelines for oculoplastic surgeons.METHODS: We examined COVID-19 guidelines published by oculoplastic societies worldwide. All countries around the world were initially considered in this study, but only 9 oculoplastic societies met the inclusion criteria: (1) publicly available guidelines displayed on the oculoplastic society's website, or (2) guidelines received from the oculoplastic society after contacting them twice using the contact information on their website.RESULTS: The 9 oculoplastic societies examined include: the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the British Oculoplastic Surgery Society, the Canadian Society of Oculoplastic Surgery, the European Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, la Sociedad Espanola de Cirugia Plastica Ocular y Orbitaria, la Asociacion Colombiana de Cirugia Plastica Ocular, the Asia Pacific Society of Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, the Oculoplastics Association of India, and the Philippine Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. They all agree that urgent procedures should not be delayed, while non-necessary procedures (including all elective clinic services) should be postponed. When adequate protective equipment is available, oculoplastic surgeons must treat urgent cases. Eight out of 9 societies have provided recommendations on personal protective equipment use in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to adequately protect mucous membranes. Other recommendations provided by certain societies are related to shelter in place measures, hand hygiene and surface disinfection protocols, patient triage, and thyroid eye disease management.CONCLUSIONS: All 9 societies with published recommendations have provided valuable recommendations to their members, regarding urgency of care and infection control solutions (personal protective equipment, hand hygiene, telemedicine, and social isolation).

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0000000000001776

View details for PubMedID 32658132

Purpose: While cannabis has the potential to reduce corneal pain, cannabinoids might induce side effects. This review article examines the effects of cannabinoids on the cornea. As more states and countries consider the legalization of adult cannabis use, health-care providers will need to identify ocular effects of cannabis consumption.Methods: Studies included in this review examined the connection between cannabis and the cornea, more specifically anti-nociceptive and anti-inflammatory actions of cannabinoids. NCBI Databases from 1781 up to December 2019 were consulted.Results: Five studies examined corneal dysfunctions caused by cannabis consumption (opacification, decreased endothelial cell density). Twelve studies observed a reduction in corneal pain and inflammation (less lymphocytes, decreased corneal neovascularization, increased cell proliferation and migration).Conclusion: More than half of the studies examined the therapeutic effects of cannabinoids on the cornea. As the field is still young, more studies should be conducted to develop safe cannabinoid treatments for corneal diseases.

View details for DOI 10.1080/09273948.2020.1726969

View details for PubMedID 32159404

Objective: Since the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a public health emergency, medical societies around the world published COVID-19 recommendations to physicians to ensure patient care and physician safety. During this pandemic, ophthalmologists around the world adapted their clinical and surgical practice following such guidelines. This original research examines all publicly available COVID-19 recommendations from twelve major ophthalmology societies around the world.Methods and analysis: Twelve ophthalmology societies recognised by the International Council of Ophthalmology were included in this study. One society per each WHO region was included: the society selected was the one who had the highest number of national COVID-19 confirmed cases on 11 May 2020. In addition to these countries, the major ophthalmology society in each G7 country was included.Results: Ten out of 12 major international ophthalmology societies from countries covering all six WHO regions have given recommendations regarding urgent patient care, social distancing, telemedicine and personal protective equipment when caring for ophthalmic patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. While all guidelines emphasise the importance of postponing non-urgent care and taking necessary safety measures, specific recommendations differ between countries.Conclusions: As there is no clear consensus on ophthalmology guidelines across countries, this paper highlights the differences in international ophthalmic care recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowledge of the differences in ophthalmic management plans will allow ophthalmologists and all eye care providers to consider the variety of international approaches and apply best practices following evidence-based recommendations during pandemics.

View details for DOI 10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000525

View details for PubMedID 32656359

Patients with ophthalmic emergencies often present to emergency rooms. Emergency medicine (EM) physicians should feel comfortable encountering these conditions. We assessed EM physicians' comfort working up, diagnosing, and managing ophthalmic emergencies.329 EM physicians participated in this cross-sectional multicentre survey. Questions inquired about the amount, type, and self-perceived adequacy of ophthalmic training. Likert scales were used to assess confidence and comfort working up, diagnosing, and managing ophthalmic emergencies.Participants recall receiving a median of 5 and 10 h of ophthalmic training in medical school and residency, respectively. Few feel this prepared them for residency (16.5%) or practice (52.0%). Only 50.6% feel confident with their ophthalmic exam. Most (75.0%) feel confident in their ability to identify an ophthalmic emergency, but 58.8% feel well prepared to work them up. Responders feel more comfortable diagnosing acute retrobulbar hematoma (72.5%), retinal detachment (69.8%), and acute angle closure glaucoma (78.0%) than central retinal artery occlusion (28.9%) or giant cell arteritis (53.2%). Only 60.2% feel comfortable determining if canthotomy and cantholysis is necessary in the setting of acute retrobulbar hematoma, and 40.3% feel comfortable performing the procedure. There was a trend towards attending physicians and providers in urban and academic settings feeling more comfortable diagnosing and managing ophthalmic emergencies compared to trainees, non-urban, and non-academic physicians.Many participants do not feel comfortable using ophthalmic equipment, performing an eye exam, making vision or potentially life-saving diagnoses, or performing vision-saving procedures, suggesting the need to increase ophthalmic training in EM curricula.

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41433-020-0889-x

View details for PubMedID 32350451

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jcjo.2020.07.016

View details for PubMedID 32818428

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this case series was to further characterize proteasome inhibitor associated chalazia and blepharitis, to investigate outcomes of different management strategies, and to propose a treatment algorithm for eyelid complications in this patient population.METHODS: This retrospective case series included sixteen patients found to have chalazia and/or blepharitis while receiving proteasome inhibitors for plasma cell disorders at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, NY from January 2010 through January 2017. Main outcomes were complete resolution of eyelid complications and time to resolution. Student's t-test was used to compare average values and Fisher's exact test was used to compare proportions.RESULTS: Fourteen patients had chalazia and 10 had blepharitis. Chalazia averaged 5.4mm, and 11 patients with chalazia experienced two or more lesions. Median follow-up time was 17months. Average time from bortezomib exposure to onset of first eyelid complication was 3.4months. Chalazia episodes were more likely to completely resolve than blepharitis episodes (p=0.03). Ocular therapy alone was trialed for an average of 1.8months before proceeding to bortezomib omission. Average time to eyelid complication resolution using ocular therapy alone was 1.8months versus 3.1months after bortezomib omission. In this series, the combination of ocular therapy and bortezomib omission led to complete resolution of eyelid complications more often than ocular therapy alone.CONCLUSION: Proteasome inhibitor associated eyelid complications were identified in sixteen patients with plasma cell disorders. Eyelid complications may be treated with a 2-month trial of conservative ocular therapies alone, followed by continuation of ocular therapy in combination with bortezomib omission if eyelid signs persist.

View details for DOI 10.1186/s12886-019-1118-x

View details for PubMedID 31088416

Cannabis is the most consumed illicit drug worldwide. As more countries consider bills that would legalize adult use of cannabis, health care providers, including eye care professionals (ophthalmologists, optometrists), will need to recognize ocular effects of cannabis consumption in patients. There are only 20 studies on the eyelid effects of cannabis usage as a medical treatment or a recreational drug. These include: ptosis induction, an "eyelid tremor" appearance and blepharospasm attenuation. Six articles describe how adequately dosed cannabis regimens could be promising medical treatments for blepharospasm induced by psychogenic factors. Fourteen articles report eyelid tremors in intoxicated drivers and ptosis as a secondary effect in cannabinoid animal experimental models. The exact mechanism of cannabinoids connecting cannabis to the eyelids is unclear. Further studies should be conducted to better understand the cannabinoid system in relation to the eyelid and eventually develop new, effective and safe therapeutic targets derived from cannabis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

View details for DOI 10.1111/ceo.13687

View details for PubMedID 31747112

Joubert syndrome is a group of rare disorders that stem from defects in a sensory organelle, the primary cilia. Affected patients often present with disorders involving multiple organ systems, including the brain, eyes, and kidneys. Common symptoms include breathing abnormalities, mental developmental delays, loss of voluntary muscle coordination, and abnormal eye movements, with a diagnostic "molar tooth" sign observed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the midbrain. We reviewed the ocular phenotypes that can be found in patients with Joubert syndrome. Ocular motor apraxia is the most frequent (80% of patients), followed by strabismus (74%) and nystagmus (72%). A minority of patients also present with ptosis (43%), chorioretinal coloboma (30%), and optic nerve atrophy (22%). Although mutations in 34 genes have been found to be associated with Joubert syndrome, retinal degeneration has been reported in only 38% of patients. Mutations in AHI1 and CEP290, genes critical to primary cilia function, have been linked to retinal degeneration. In conclusion, Joubert syndrome is a rare pleiotropic group of disorders with variable ocular presentations.

View details for PubMedID 30518138

View details for DOI 10.3390/genes9120605

View details for Web of Science ID 000454717800039

PURPOSE: To review the clinical features of orbital and choroidal metastases from urothelial carcinomas of the urinary tract among cases reported in the literature, and to describe a case of orbital metastasis from bladder cancer presenting as apparent internuclear ophthalmoplegia.METHODS: Case reports of orbital and choroidal metastases from urothelial carcinomas published in the literature from 1965 to 2018 were reviewed. Data collected included patient demographics, cancer stage and primary site, time to onset of ocular symptoms, length of presenting ocular symptoms, types of primary ocular symptoms, diagnostic imaging, histology, systemic and ocular treatments, and survival time.RESULTS: Twenty-eight cases of urothelial carcinoma with metastasis to the orbit or choroid were reviewed. Men were significantly more likely to suffer from this condition than women (p = 0.011). The average age of presentation with orbital symptoms was 63 years, with an average time of 19 months between primary cancer diagnosis and onset of orbital symptoms. Twenty-two patients had metastasis to the orbit and 6 to the choroid. In 4 cases, ocular deficits secondary to orbital and/or choroidal metastases were the initial presenting symptoms in patients with previously undiagnosed urothelial carcinoma. The most commonly noted primary ocular symptoms and signs consisted of decreased visual acuity, decreased ocular motility, proptosis, and diplopia. Average survival from onset of ocular symptoms was 4.67 months.CONCLUSIONS: Urothelial carcinoma may metastasize to the orbit or choroid; furthermore, its presentation may mimic internuclear ophthalmoplegia. It is recommended that any patient with visual symptoms and known urothelial cancer should undergo expedited workup for metastatic disease.

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0000000000001256

View details for PubMedID 30489454

To evaluate the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and the presence and severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR).Three hundred seventeen patients with International Classification of Diseases diagnoses of both DR and OSA were evaluated retrospectively. Diabetic retinopathy severity and diabetic macular edema status were determined by diagnostic coding and medical records. Obstructive sleep apnea severity and additional sleep measures were obtained from overnight polysomnography. Analysis was performed using multivariable logistic regression.After adjustment, an association was seen between DR and severe OSA (odds ratio [OR]: 2.18, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14-4.18, P = 0.019). Proliferative DR was associated with severe OSA versus no DR (OR: 2.40, 95% CI: 1.12-5.14, P = 0.024) and mild nonproliferative DR (OR: 2.87, 95% CI: 1.26-6.55, P = 0.012). Comparing all nonproliferative DR with proliferative DR, proliferative DR and severe OSA were associated (OR: 2.20, 95% CI: 1.03-4.70, P = 0.043), as well as diabetic macular edema and severe OSA (OR: 2.89, 95% CI: 1.58-5.27, P = 0.001). No association was seen between DR/diabetic macular edema and secondary sleep measures.The findings suggest an increased risk of DR, proliferative DR, and diabetic macular edema in patients with severe OSA. Ophthalmologists following these patients should be aware of this association to better manage ocular sequelae of diabetes.

View details for DOI 10.1097/IAE.0000000000001848

View details for Web of Science ID 000454007400012

View details for PubMedID 28937527

View details for Web of Science ID 000442912500290

To study the patterns of usage and perception among U.S. oculoplastic surgeons regarding surgical loupes.An anonymous 20-question survey was emailed out to the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery listserv. Data were compiled in Google Forms. SPSS was used for statistical analyses. This study was approved by the institutional review board.Of the 609 members contacted, 239 (39%) completed the survey; 95% of respondents owned loupes and 78% regularly used them. No association was observed between frequency of loupe usage and sex or years in practice. The most common magnification and brand were 2.5× and Designs for Vision, respectively. The most common problems associated with loupes were limited vision (33%) and lack of comfort (24%), with 11% citing neck and cervical spinal disorders. The most common benefits were magnification (93%) and increased visual accuracy (68%). Of the respondents, 56% believed improved patient care to be a benefit and 76% believed that loupes enhance surgical outcome. With regard to training, 67% supported incorporating loupes into residency, 35% believed in mandating loupe purchase, and 25% wanted residencies to provide loupes at no cost. Respondent support for the use of loupes in practice and training was directly correlated with how frequently they used loupes.The vast majority of respondents owned loupes. Although most loupe owners used loupes regularly, a sizable proportion operated with limited vision and lack of comfort. Overall, just over half of respondents believed that loupes improve patient care and should be integrated into residency.

View details for PubMedID 29631825

To assess the within-treatment efficacy of hot compresses (HC), HC plus tobramycin (Tobrex) and HC plus tobramycin/dexamethasone (Tobradex) for chalazia treatment.Design: Multicentre, randomized clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT01230593).Two clinical sites in New York and two clinical sites in Ontario.A total of 149 patients with one or more chalazia on separate eyelids randomly assigned to receive HC (n = 50), HC plus tobramycin (n = 50) or HC plus tobramycin/dexamethasone (n = 49).4-6 weeks of assigned treatment. Patients were measured for chalazion horizontal width and surveyed for pain and treatment satisfaction levels.Primary outcome was complete resolution (100% size reduction). Secondary outcomes were size change in millimetres and patient reported pre- and post-treatment pain and satisfaction levels.In the intention-to-treat (ITT) population, complete resolution occurred in 36 (18%) lesions total, 13 (21%) treated with HC, 12 (16%) with HC plus tobramycin and 11 (18%) with HC plus tobramycin/dexamethasone, with no significant difference between them (p = .78). Individually by paired t-test, there were statistically significant post-treatment mean size differences: HC 1.20 mm (p < 0.001), HC plus tobramycin 1.69 mm (p < .001) and HC plus tobramycin/dexamethasone 1.54 mm (p < 0.001), but no significant difference between them (p = .61). Lesions that completely resolved had a statistically significant lower pretreatment duration (1.5 months) compared to lesions that did not completely resolve (2.2 months) (p = .04).Hot compresses (HC) alone or in combination with tobramycin or tobramycin/dexamethasone drops and ointment are all effective first-line treatment options for chalazia. However, physicians may consider moving directly to the use of more invasive therapies, such as incision and curettage or steroid injections, for chalazia that have been present for more than 2 months, as older lesions are less likely to resolve with conservative therapies alone.

View details for PubMedID 29338124

PurposeThis retrospective cohort study assesses the visual outcomes of patients who survive gunshot wounds to the head.MethodsThe Elmhurst City Hospital Trauma Registry and Mount Sinai Data Warehouse were queried for gun trauma resulting in ocular injury over a 16-year period. Thirty-one patients over 16 years of age were found who suffered a gunshot wound to the head and resultant ocular trauma: orbital fracture, ruptured globe, foreign body, or optic nerve injury. Gun types included all firearms and air guns. Nine patients were excluded due to incorrect coding or unavailable charts. Statistical analysis was performed using a simple bivariate analysis (χ2).ResultsOf the 915 victims of gun trauma to the head, 27 (3.0%) sustained ocular injuries. Of the 22 patients whose records were accessible, 18 survived. Eight of the 18 surviving patients (44%) suffered long-term visual damage, defined as permanent loss of vision in at least one eye to the level of counting fingers or worse. Neither location of injury (P=0.243), nor type of gun used (P=0.296), nor cause of gun trauma (P=0.348) predicted visual loss outcome. The Glasgow Coma Scale eye response score on arrival to the hospital also did not predict visual loss outcome (P=0.793).ConclusionThere has been a dearth of research into gun trauma and even less research on the visual outcomes following gun trauma. Our study finds that survivors of gun trauma to the head suffer long-term visual damage 44% of the time after injury.Eye advance online publication, 22 December 2017; doi:10.1038/eye.2017.249.

View details for DOI 10.1038/eye.2017.249

View details for PubMedID 29271420

Standard electrosurgery provides superior hemostasis compared to a cold steel scalpel, but inferior tissue healing. A novel electrosurgical blade with an advanced waveform, the MEGADYNE ACE BLADE™ 700 Soft Tissue Dissector (ACE), was designed to provide both excellent hemostasis and wound healing. This study compared ACE to scalpel and standard electrosurgery in a porcine model of wound healing.Skin incisions from six pigs were evaluated at time points of 0, 1, 2, 3 and 6 weeks after application of the three devices. Histopathology was performed on samples from each time point. For each non-initial time point, the healing incisions were photographed for later evaluation by expert graders, and excised for wound strength testing.Time 0 photomicrographs showed a gradient of thermal tissue damage by initial incision, ranging from no damage made by the scalpel, minimal damage made by ACE, and twice the ACE damage made by a nonstick PTFE-coated electrosurgical blade. Histopathologic analysis at 6 weeks showed comparable dermal scar width measurements for scalpel and ACE incisions. Scars were wider for incisions made by standard electrosurgical blade. Wound strength was greater for scalpel and ACE than for standard electrosurgery. Cosmetic results at 6 weeks were not significantly different between scalpel and ACE incisions, while standard electrosurgical blade incisions were significantly inferior to ACE (odds ratio: 53.4, p<0.001).The MEGADYNE ACE BLADE™ 700 Soft Tissue Dissector represents a significant improvement in electrosurgical technology for skin incisions and dispels the traditional concerns of delayed healing and poor cosmetic result that have been attributed to using conventional electrosurgical blades for skin incisions.

View details for DOI 10.15761/MRI.1000124

View details for PubMedID 33073169

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7561048

A 53-year-old woman presented with an apocrine cystadenoma of the right upper eyelid. Histologic examination revealed proliferating epithelial cells with apocrine snouts and occasional mitotic figures. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed a Ki-67 index of 15% and positive staining for synaptophysin, chromogranin, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, gross cystic disease fluid protein (GCDFP)-15, and mammoglobin. The complement of positive immunomarkers in this case reinforces the importance of total excision and careful histologic assessment.

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0000000000000416

View details for Web of Science ID 000392250400028

View details for PubMedID 25719370

The review examines the utility of stem cell biology in ophthalmology and oculoplastic surgery.The applicability of stem cell biology varies across a range of different subfields within ophthalmology and oculoplastic surgery. Resident stem cells have been identified in the lacrimal gland, corneal limbus, orbital fat, and muscles of the eye, and can potentially be applied for in-vitro cell and organ cultures with the intent of disease modeling and transplants. The discovery of adipocyte-derived stem cells offered a potentially powerful tool for a variety of oculoplastic applications, such as wound healing, skin rejuvenation, and burn therapeutics. Several groups are currently identifying new uses for stem cells in oculoplastic surgery.The need for stem cell treatment spans a wide array of subfields within ophthalmology, ranging from reconstruction of the eyelid to the generation of artificial lacrimal glands and oncological therapeutics. The advent of induced pluripotent stem cells opened the realm of regenerative medicine, making the modeling of patient-specific diseases a possibility. The identification and characterization of endogenous stem cell populations in the eye makes it possible to obtain specific tissues through induced pluripotent stem cells differentiation, permitting their use in transplants for oculoplastic surgery.

View details for DOI 10.1097/ICU.0000000000000288

View details for Web of Science ID 000382560300011

View details for PubMedID 27206262

Emergent ophthalmic disease can lead to permanent visual impairment or blindness if medical attention is delayed. Awareness and knowledge of emergent ophthalmic disease may be important for early medical presentation and maximization of visual prognosis in some cases.To assess public awareness and knowledge of 4 emergent ophthalmic diseases.This cross-sectional study was conducted from June 1 to July 30, 2015, in the waiting rooms of the outpatient internal medicine resident clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital. A written survey was administered to evaluate awareness and knowledge of retinal detachment, acute angle-closure glaucoma, giant cell arteritis, and central retinal artery occlusion. Awareness of each disease was assessed by whether participants knew what the diseases were (yes or no). Knowledge was evaluated by responses to 3 questions for each disease, including 1 question about basic pathophysiologic features, 1 question about basic symptoms, and 1 question about basic treatment options. All English-speaking patients who were physically and cognitively able to fill out the survey without assistance were considered eligible and offered the opportunity to participate during times of survey distribution; 237 completed the survey. Demographic information, including age, sex, race, income, and educational level, was collected. Data were assessed from August 1 to 7, 2015.Awareness of each ophthalmic disease was determined by the proportion of respondents who answered yes, and knowledge was determined by the proportion of aware respondents who answered the knowledge questions correctly.Two hundred thirty-seven patients (of 227 who gave complete demographic information, 76 men [33.5%], 151 women [66.5%], and mean [SD] age, 51.3 [16.8] years) completed the survey. Awareness of each of the diseases studied was low; 61 of 220 respondents (27.7%; 95% CI, 21.8%-33.6%) were aware of retinal detachment; 32 of 219 respondents (14.6%; 95% CI, 9.9%-19.3%), acute angle-closure glaucoma; 11 of 216 respondents (5.1%; 95% CI, 2.2%-8.0%), giant cell arteritis; and 10 of 218 respondents (4.6%; 95% CI, 1.8%-7.4%), central retinal artery occlusion. Respondents who were aware and knowledgeable ranged from 29 of 199 (14.6%) for the pathophysiologic features of retinal detachment, 1 of 208 (0.5%) for the symptoms and 2 of 203 (1.0%) for treatment of giant cell arteritis, and 1 of 193 (0.5%) for the pathophysiologic features of central retinal artery occlusion.Levels of awareness and knowledge of emergent ophthalmic diseases are low. These results indicate a need to educate the public about these acutely vision-threatening entities to ensure early medical presentation, to achieve the best possible visual prognosis, and to preserve quality of life.

View details for DOI 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2015.6212

View details for Web of Science ID 000373988900019

View details for PubMedID 26892039

To determine the corneal regenerative capacity of sequentially generated primary, secondary, and tertiary limbal explant outgrowths in a limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) surgical model.Two-millimeter-long limbal shallow biopsies were surgically excised from the upper quadrant of the right eye of rabbits and set on preserved amniotic membrane for explant culture. After the generation of primary outgrowth, the biopsies were sequentially transferred to new amniotic membrane to generate secondary and then tertiary outgrowths. Eighteen rabbits were subjected to a 360° limbal peritomy extending into the scleral zone and combined with superficial keratectomy of the corneal periphery and thorough mechanical debridement of the central cornea in their left eye. Right eye outgrowths, six of each generation, were engrafted on the ocular surface. Clinical outcomes (neovascularization, corneal clarity, and corneal fluorescein staining) were graded after 6 months. Post-mortem corneas were compared with histology, immunochemistry for p63 and Krt3, ABCG2-dependent dye exclusion, and capacity for outgrowths in explant culture.Immunohistology and western blot of the outgrowths for p63 and Krt3 indicated no differences in expression between the primary and tertiary outgrowths for these two markers of growth and differentiation. Clinically, all rabbits treated with amniotic membrane alone developed severe LSCD. Most rabbits grafted with cell outgrowths from all three outgrowth generations achieved stable (>6 months) recovery of the ocular surface. There were partial failures of grafts performed with two secondary and tertiary outgrowths. However, Kruskal-Wallis statistical analysis of the clinical scores yielded no significant difference between the three groups (p=0.524). Histology showed full anatomic recovery of grafts made with primary and tertiary outgrowths. Krt3 and p63 expression throughout the whole limbal corneal epithelium with primary or tertiary outgrowths was not distinguishable from each other. The percentage of dye-excluding cells present within this zone and the capacity of the explant epithelial outgrowth of the regenerated peripheral corneal zone were also on par with those of the donor corneas. The Krt3-negative cells that characterize the basal epithelial layer of the normal limbus could not be found in any regenerated cornea from the primary to tertiary outgrowths.Our results demonstrate that in rabbits post-primary explant outgrowths retain the capacity for LSCD recovery found in primary explants.

View details for Web of Science ID 000369699800001

View details for PubMedID 26937166

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4757454

To assess the prognostic value of the Ocular Trauma Score in patients with combined open globe injuries and facial fractures.Retrospective cohort study.A comprehensive chart review was conducted on 25 patients (28 eyes) identified from the Elmhurst City Hospital Trauma Registry between January 1, 2000 and June 30, 2012. Elmhurst City Hospital is a level 1 trauma center located in Elmhurst, New York, USA.Average age was 52 (range 18-88) and patients were predominantly male (84%). The majority of patients had an Ocular Trauma Score of 1 (87.5%), and of these patients, 76% and 14% had final visual acuities of no light perception (NLP) and light perception/hand motion (LP/HM), respectively. These corresponded to 74% and 15% predicted by the original Ocular Trauma Score guidelines (100% sensitive and 100% specific). Ocular Trauma Score of 1 was associated with zone 3 eye wound location (P = .02). Independent of Ocular Trauma Score, initial visual acuity and frontal bone fractures were predictive of NLP (P = .006 and P = .047). Nonblindness was associated with nasal bone fractures (P = .047).This study validates the use of the Ocular Trauma Score in patients with combined facial fracture and open globe injury. The presence of facial fractures does not appear to influence visual prognosis for open globe injuries with an Ocular Trauma Score of 1. In the absence of data to calculate a full Ocular Trauma Score, initial visual acuity was the strongest predictor of final visual outcome.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ajo.2015.08.007

View details for Web of Science ID 000363914800006

View details for PubMedID 26275473

A 4-year-old boy presented with a 6-day history of severe non-limbic-sparing conjunctivitis. Atypical Stevens-Johnson syndrome with a possible cause of Mycoplasma pneumoniae was suspected as the precipitant of the clinical symptoms. The patient recovered with amniotic membrane transplantation and intravenous immunoglobulin therapy despite an initial delay in diagnosis.

View details for DOI 10.3928/01913913-20150811-01

View details for PubMedID 26301401

Bilateral lacrimal gland (LG) disease is a unique presentation that can result from varied causes. We reviewed the diagnoses, clinical features, and outcomes of 97 patients with this entity.Case series.Ninety-seven patients with bilateral LG disease.Retrospective review and statistical analysis using analysis of variance and the Fisher exact test.Patient demographics, clinical features, diagnostic testing, diagnosis, and treatment.Patient age ranging from 8 to 84 years (mean, 46 years). The predominant gender was female (77%), and race included black (49%), white (38%), and Hispanic (12%) patients. Diagnoses fell into 4 categories: inflammatory (n = 51; 53%), structural (n = 20; 21%), lymphoproliferative (n = 19; 20%), and uncommon (n = 7; 7%) entities. The most common diagnoses included idiopathic orbital inflammation (IOI; n = 29; 30%), sarcoidosis (n = 19; 20%), prolapsed LG (n = 15; 15%), lymphoma (n = 11; 11%), lymphoid hyperplasia (n = 8; 8%), and dacryops (n = 5; 5%). Inflammatory conditions were more likely in younger patients (P<0.05) and in those with pain (P<0.001) and mechanical blepharoptosis (P<0.01) at presentation, whereas lymphoma was more common in older patients (P<0.001) without active signs of inflammation at presentation. Black patients were more likely to have sarcoidosis (P<0.01). Laboratory results showed high angiotensin converting enzyme level being significantly more likely in patients with sarcoidosis (P<0.05). However, sensitivity was limited to 45%, with 25% of patients diagnosed with IOI also demonstrating positive results. Corticosteroid therapy was the treatment of choice in 38 cases, corresponding to resolution of symptoms in 29% and improvement in an additional 32%. Overall, chronic underlying disease was found in 71% of patients, among whom 26% achieved a disease-free state, whereas 3% succumbed to their underlying disease.The cause of bilateral lacrimal gland disease most commonly was inflammatory, followed by structural and lymphoproliferative. Patient characteristics and clinical presentations were key features distinguishing between competing possibilities. Despite local control with corticosteroids or radiotherapy, underlying disease continued in 71% of patients and led to death in 3%.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ophtha.2014.04.018

View details for Web of Science ID 000342697300036

View details for PubMedID 24907059

To compare variables and outcomes from ocular trauma leading to either enucleation or evisceration to better inform surgical decision making.Retrospective chart review.We reviewed 441 patients between 2001 and 2012 presenting with ocular trauma to a Level 1 trauma center in Queens, New York; of these, there were 16 enucleations and 6 eviscerations. Retrospective chart review noted age, gender, mechanism of injury, initial and final visual acuity, time to surgery, length of follow-up, pain, degree of motility, and complications. A review of literature in the context of our study was performed.20 patients were male and 2 patients were female; average age was 44 (SD: 20.0, range 18-91). 9/16 patients were enucleated to prevent sympathetic ophthalmia, whereas only 1/5 patient was eviscerated for this indication (p = 0.1619). No cases of sympathetic ophthalmia were reported over an average follow-up of 316 days. Average length of follow-up varied significantly between the two groups, with an average of 370.4 days (SD: 566.9, range 0-1870) for enucleated eyes and 172.7 days (SD: 146.3, range 0-422) for eviscerated eyes (p = 0.42). Medpor implants were preferred in eviscerations (5/6 eviscerations), whereas hydroxyapatite implants were preferred in enucleations (10/16 enucleations, p = 0.04).Surgical decision-making in ocular trauma is largely based on surgeon preference and experience, with minimal evidence in the literature to support either enucleation or evisceration. We recommend evisceration over enucleation in cases of reliable patient follow-up due to the low incidence of sympathetic ophthalmia.

View details for DOI 10.3109/01676830.2013.764452

View details for PubMedID 23909276

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jcjo.2012.03.012

View details for PubMedID 23036560

A 46-year-old male was referred to the Ophthalmology Service for a 7-year history of bilateral proptosis and a presumptive diagnosis of thyroid eye disease. Past medical history was only significant for autoimmune pancreatitis. All laboratory testing including tests of thyroid function were within normal limits. The patient underwent orbital biopsy and was found to have plasma cells containing mainly IgG4 immunoglobulin that was consistent with IgG4-related disease. The patient was treated with oral prednisone and the proptosis resolved within 3 weeks.

View details for DOI 10.3109/01676830.2011.616618

View details for PubMedID 22712681

Much literature has accumulated espousing the relative merits of endonasal and external dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR). However, there is comparatively little information on the relative anatomic differences between these 2 approaches. The purpose of this study is to investigate the anatomic relationships of the lateral nasal wall for endonasal and external DCR.Ten cadaver half heads were used in this study. Half were subject to endonasal and half to external DCR procedures. The lateral nasal wall was then dissected and measurements were taken of ostium and anastomosis size and position relative to other landmarks on the lateral nasal wall. Relationships were compared between the 2 procedures.The dimensions and area of the ostium and the anastomosis were similar between the 2 procedures. The lower portion of the ostium was located more inferiorly in endonasal DCR. Additionally, the ostium was more likely to be found lateral to the axilla of the middle turbinate in endonasal DCR, when compared with anterior for external. External DCR was also more likely to involve opening the anterior ethmoid air cells than endonasal approach.Endonasal and external DCR osteomies appear to be of similar size, with the endonasal opening being located slightly lower and more posterior on the lateral nasal wall.

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0b013e318248e687

View details for Web of Science ID 000301974000025

View details for PubMedID 22410664

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jcio.2011.10.002

View details for Web of Science ID 000299017600027

View details for PubMedID 22153651

A 31-year-old man presented 5 days after a left bicanalicular laceration from trauma. Identification of the medial cut ends under direct visualization was unsuccessful. A retrograde endoscopic approach was used to identify the common canaliculus or one of the medial cut ends of the canaliculi by injecting the lacrimal sac with saline and observing fluid egress from the wound. Both canaliculi were stented with a silicone tube and both ends of the tube were passed through the identified medial opening in the lacrimal sac. The tubes were retrieved from the nose and tied, and then left for 6 months before removal. The patient did not complain of epiphora and demonstrated bicanalicular patency on irrigation. This is the first description of using an endoscopic retrograde approach to identify the medial ends of a bicanalicular laceration.

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0b013e31820c6e3f

View details for Web of Science ID 000296865200012

View details for PubMedID 21346667

A 72-year-old man presented with a slowly progressive left hyperglobus, left infraduction deficit, bilateral lower eyelid retraction, and dysphagia. He had a notable chin-down head position, diplopia in primary position, and 3 mm of left proptosis. He had been diagnosed with Graves disease 3 years before presentation. CT scans showed enlargement of the left inferior and medial rectus muscles with associated stranding of the retrobulbar fat and a low-density heterogeneous mass in the left aspect of the neck protruding in the nasopharynx. Biopsies of the orbit and nasopharynx revealed focal areas of amyloid. This represents the first report of bifocal amyloidomas of the orbit and nasopharynx.

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0b013e31820367ca

View details for Web of Science ID 000294711700012

View details for PubMedID 21178798

To determine the indications for ordering orbital imaging and the indications for ordering CT versus MRI by oculoplastic surgeons and to assess the correlation between surgeon's clinical indications for imaging and the radiologist's diagnosis.Retrospective review of imaging requisitions and radiology reports.Patients of 4 oculoplastic surgeons who required CT or MRI scans.Imaging requisitions and radiology reports of patients from 4 oculoplastic surgeons were reviewed to determine the indication for ordering a CT or MRI scan between March 2006 and March 2009. The indications were then compared with the radiologist's diagnosis.A total of 735 patients were included: 449 (61.1%) female and 286 (38.9%) male, with an average age of 50.1 years and an age range of 7 months to 93 years. Of these patients, a total of 632 CT and 223 MRI scans were ordered, 135 of which were follow-up scans.The most common indication for CT scan was thyroid disease, followed by orbital tumors and then inflammatory disease, while the most common indication for MRI scan was orbital tumors, followed by inflammatory disease and then thyroid disease. CT scans were more commonly ordered than MRI, largely for trauma and to rule out orbital foreign body.

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0b013e31820b0365

View details for Web of Science ID 000292633700022

View details for PubMedID 21326128

To present a new technique using the recently introduced Enduragen(®) material (Tissue Science Laboratories) as a patch graft for exposed ocular implants.A retrospective, interventional, non-comparative case series of 3 patients who had Enduragen patch grafts for the closure of Tenon's capsule and conjunctiva over exposed ocular implants. Medical records were reviewed and the following parameters were collected: age, gender, indication for surgery, type of surgery, laterality, type of orbital implant, complications after repair and length of follow-up.Three patients were identified, 2 males and 1 female. One patient had a secondary quad-motility implant with supertemporal exposure. The second patient had a secondary implant with a fistula at the lateral aspect of the socket. The third patient had a centrally exposed primary hydroxyapatite implant. All patients received Enduragen patch grafts to cover the implant. Follow up ranged from 40 to 43 months (mean, 41.3 months; SD, ± 1.5). None of the 3 patients had any signs of implant re-exposure at the time of the last post-operative visit. There were no intra-operative or early complications observed.This consecutive case series suggests that Enduragen could be used as a safe and effective patch graft for exposed ocular implants. However, a larger prospective study with longer follow-up would be useful in further defining the indications and limitations of the Enduragen patch graft for the treatment of exposed orbital implants.

View details for DOI 10.3109/01676830.2011.558974

View details for PubMedID 21438730

To study the safety, efficacy, and cosmetic outcome of the eyelash resection procedure for treatment of severe, recurrent, or segmental cicatricial entropion.Retrospective consecutive case series of patients with severe, recurrent, or segmental cicatricial entropion treated with eyelash resection at the Moran Eye Center and the University of Vermont. Investigators performed chart reviews of these patients and evaluated effectiveness of the treatment and outcome data, including age, gender, diagnoses, method of repair, recurrence of trichiasis, and cosmetic satisfaction. There were no exclusionary characteristics specified in the study.A total of 26 eyelids were operated on in 5 male and 11 female patients. The mean age was 74 years, with the following diagnoses: idiopathic (6), ocular cicatricial pemphigoid (2), postoperative (2), ocular pseudopemphigoid (drug related) (1), graft-versus-host disease (1), Stevens-Johnson syndrome (1), trachoma (1), linear IgA bullous dermatosis (1), and trauma (1). Mean postoperative follow-up was 13 months. The functional success rate was 90.5%, and the cosmetic success rate was 100%.The eyelash resection procedure is a safe, effective, and cosmetically acceptable procedure for treatment of severe, recurrent, or segmental cicatricial entropion.

View details for DOI 10.1097/IOP.0b013e3181b8c900

View details for Web of Science ID 000276129300011

View details for PubMedID 20305511

View details for Web of Science ID 000259652900028

View details for PubMedID 18806679

Binding of cGMP to the GAF-B domain of phosphodiesterase 2A allosterically activates catalytic activity. We report here a series of mutagenesis studies on the GAF-B domain of PDE2A that support a novel mechanism for molecular recognition of cGMP. Alanine mutations of Phe-438, Asp-439, and Thr-488, amino acids that interact with the pyrimidine ring, decrease cGMP affinity slightly but increase cAMP affinity by up to 8-fold. Each interaction is required to provide for cAMP/cGMP specificity. Mutations of any of the residues that interact with the phosphate-ribose moiety or the imidazole ring abolish cGMP binding. Thus, residues that interact with the pyrimidine ring collectively control cAMP/cGMP specificity, whereas residues that bind the phosphate-ribose moiety and imidazole ring are critical for high affinity binding. Similar decreases in binding were found for mutations made in a bacterially expressed GAF-A/B plus catalytic domain construct. Because these constructs had very high catalytic activity, it appears that these mutations did not cause a global denaturation. The affinities of cAMP and cGMP for wild-type GAF-B alone were approximately 4-fold greater than for the holoenzyme, suggesting that the presence of neighboring domains alters the conformation of GAF-B. More importantly, the PDE2A GAF-B, GAF-A/B, GAF-A/B+C domains, and holoenzyme all bind cGMP with much higher affinity than has previously been reported. This high affinity suggests that cGMP binding to PDE2 GAF-B activates the enzyme rapidly, stoichiometrically, and in an all or none fashion, rather than variably over a large range of cyclic nucleotide concentrations.

View details for DOI 10.1074/jbc.M404287200

View details for Web of Science ID 000223554600086

View details for PubMedID 15210692

Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases (PDEs) regulate all pathways that use cGMP or cAMP as a second messenger. Five of the 11 PDE families have regulatory segments containing GAF domains, 3 of which are known to bind cGMP. In PDE2 binding of cGMP to the GAF domain causes an activation of the catalytic activity by a mechanism that apparently is shared even in the adenylyl cyclase of Anabaena, an organism separated from mouse by 2 billion years of evolution. The 2.9-A crystal structure of the mouse PDE2A regulatory segment reported in this paper reveals that the GAF A domain functions as a dimerization locus. The GAF B domain shows a deeply buried cGMP displaying a new cGMP-binding motif and is the first atomic structure of a physiological cGMP receptor with bound cGMP. Moreover, this cGMP site is located well away from the region predicted by previous mutagenesis and structural genomic approaches.

View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.192374899

View details for Web of Science ID 000178391700137

View details for PubMedID 12271124

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC130621

Synthesis of nitric oxide (NO) by endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) is critical for normal vascular homeostasis. eNOS function is rapidly regulated by agonists and blood flow and chronically by factors that regulate mRNA stability and gene transcription. Recently, localization of eNOS to specialized plasma membrane invaginations termed caveolae has been proposed to be required for maximal eNOS activity. Because caveolae are highly enriched in cholesterol, and hypercholesterolemia is associated with increased NO production, we first studied the effects of cholesterol loading on eNOS localization and NO production in cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs). Caveolae-enriched fractions were prepared by OptiPrep gradient density centrifugation. Treatment of BAECs with 30 microgram/mL cholesterol for 24 hours stimulated significant increases in total eNOS protein expression (1.50-fold), eNOS associated with caveolae-enriched membranes (2.23-fold), and calcium ionophore-stimulated NO production (1.56-fold). Because reactive oxygen species (ROS) contribute to endothelial dysfunction in hypercholesterolemia, we next studied the effects of ROS on eNOS localization and caveolae number. Treatment of BAECs for 24 hours with 1 micromol/L LY83583, a superoxide-generating napthoquinolinedione, decreased caveolae number measured by electron microscopy and prevented the cholesterol-mediated increases in eNOS expression. In vitro exposure of caveolae-enriched membranes to ROS (xanthine plus xanthine oxidase) dissociated caveolin more readily than eNOS from the membranes. These results show that cholesterol treatment increases eNOS expression, whereas ROS treatment decreases eNOS expression and the association of eNOS with caveolin in caveolae-enriched membranes. Our data suggest that oxidative stress modulates endothelial function by regulating caveolae formation, eNOS expression, and eNOS-caveolin interactions.

View details for Web of Science ID 000081424900006

View details for PubMedID 10400908

Using Xenopus laevis oocytes coexpressing mammalian mu-opioid receptors (MORs), beta-adrenergic receptor kinase 2 (beta-ARK2) [also called G protein-coupled receptor kinase (GRK3)], and beta-arrestin 2 (beta-arr 2), we compared the rates of beta-ARK2 (GRK3)- and beta-arr 2-mediated homologous receptor desensitization produced by treatment with opioid agonists of different efficacies. The response to MOR activation was measured using two-electrode voltage clamp as an increase in the conductance of the coexpressed G protein-coupled inwardly rectifying potassium (heteromultimer of KIR3.1 and KIR3.4) channels. Treatment with opioids of high efficacy, either [D-Ala2,N-MePhe4,Gly-ol5]-enkephalin, fentanyl, or sufentanyl, produced a GRK3- and beta-arr 2-dependent reduction in response in <20 min, whereas treatment with the partial agonist morphine produced receptor desensitization at a significantly slower rate. Because GRK3 requires activation and membrane targeting by free G protein betagamma subunits released after agonist-mediated activation of G proteins, a low efficacy agonist such as morphine may produce weak receptor desensitization as a consequence of poor GRK3 activation. To address this hypothesis, we substituted GRK5, a GRK that does not require activation by G protein betagamma. In oocytes expressing GRK5 instead of GRK3, both [D-Ala2,N-MePhe4, Gly-ol5]enkephalin and fentanyl, but not morphine, produced desensitization of MOR-activated potassium conductance. Thus, mu-opioid agonists produced significant receptor desensitization, mediated by either GRK3 or GRK5, at a rate dependent on agonist efficacy.

View details for Web of Science ID 000076485500014

View details for PubMedID 9765514

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Xiao Wu, PhD

• Assistant Professor of Biostatistics

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Credentials & experience, related news.

Xiao Wu is an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at Columbia University. His research interests lie in developing statistical and causal inference methods to address methodological needs in climate and health research. The key goal of his research is to provide scientific evidence on the health impacts of environmental factors in an age of rapidly changing climate. Contact me if you are interested in using data science to build a healthier, environmentally sustainable world!

He completed his Ph.D. in Biostatistics at Harvard University, where he was advised by Dr. Francesca Dominici and Dr. Danielle Braun. His dissertation focuses on developing causal inference methods to handle error-prone, continuous, and time-series exposures. He was a Data Science Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, where he worked with Dr. Trevor Hastie in the Department of Statistics during 2021-2022. He is also working on collaborative projects to design Bayesian clinical trials, meta-analyses, and real-world evidence studies.He has been named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list. His research has been published in prestigious scientific venues such as Science Advances, New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet Planetary Health, and the Journal of the American Statistical Association, and it has attracted the attention of international journalism, including at the New York Times, the Guardian, National Geographic, USA Today, and Scientific American.

Academic Appointments

Education & training.

• BS, 2015 Mathematics, Peking University
• LLB, 2015 Laws, Peking University
• MS, 2017 Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
• PhD, 2021 Biostatistics, Harvard University

Honors & Awards

Research interests.

• Biostatistical Methods
• Environmental Health

Selected Publications

Data science summit spotlights the quantitative cutting edge, low-intensity fires reduce wildfire risk by 60 percent.

Wei Wu, PhD

• Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery

Wei Wu, PhD specializes in researching patients with spinal cord injuries. He completed his PhD in Neurobiology at Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, studying under the guidance of Xiao-Ming Xu, PhD. Dr. Wu’s research is centered on enhancing neuroprotection, promoting axonal regeneration, and facilitating functional recovery in cases of traumatic spinal cord injuries. His work has been published in esteemed scientific journals, including Cell Stem Cell , Cell Metabolism , Nature Communications , JCI Insights , and Biomaterials . Various media outlets have extensively covered his groundbreaking findings, including subjects like spinal cord reprogramming (featured in EurekAlert, ScienceDaily, News Medical Life Sciences, IU School of Medicine newsroom and Medical Express), Neuromodulation in the cortex (EurekAlert, Medical Express, IU School of Medicine newsroom), cortical neuromodulation (highlighted in EurekAlert, Medical Express, and IU School of Medicine newsroom), neurotrophic factors (covered by EurekAlert, Bioengineer, The Visible Embryo, News Medical Life Science, Medical News Bulletin, and Medicalxpress), mitochondria transportation (noted by NIH, EurekAlert, IU School of Medicine newsroom, Physicians Weekly, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, and Technology Networks), polypharmacology (reported in Biocentury), and nonlinear optical imaging (featured in Advanced Science News).

Key Publications

• Wei Wu , et al., (2022) “Transhemispheric Remodeling the Motor Cortex Promotes Forelimb Recovery after Mouse Spinal Cord Injury” JCI Insight . First-author & Co-responding author
• Kar Men Mah, Wei Wu , et al. (2022) “Compounds co-targeting kinases in axon regulatory pathways promote regeneration and behavioral recovery after spinal cord injury” Experimental Neurology . Co-first author
• Wenjiao Tai, Wei Wu , Lei-Lei Wang, Haoqi Ni, Chunhai Chen, Jianjing Yang, Tong Zang, Yuhua Zou, Xiao-Ming Xu, Chun-Li Zhang. (2021). "In vivo reprogramming of NG2 glia enables adult neurogenesis and functional recovery following spinal cord injury." Cell Stem Cell . Co-first author.
• Wei Wu ; Wenhui Xiong, Ping Zhang, Lifang Chen, Jianqiao Fang, Christopher Shields, Xiao-Ming Xu, Xiao-Ming Jin. (2017) “Increased threshold of short-latency motor evoked potentials in transgenic mice expressing Channelrhodopsin-2”, PLoS One 12 (5): e0178803.
• Wei Wu , Pu Wang, Ji-Xin Cheng, Xiao-Ming Xu. (2014) “Assessment of White Matter Loss Using Bond-Selective Photoacoustic Imaging in a Rat Model of Contusive Spinal Cord Injury”. Journal of Neurotrauma 31 (24): 1998-2002.
• Wei Wu , Seung-Young Lee, Xiangbing Wu, Jacqueline Y Tyler, He Wang, Zheng Ouyang, Kinam Park, Xiao-Ming Xu, Ji-Xin Cheng. (2013). “Neuroprotective Ferulic Acid (FA)-Glycol Chitosan (GC) Nanoparticles for Functional Restoration of Traumatically Injured Spinal Cord”. Biomaterials 35 (7): 2355-2364.

Titles & Appointments

• Education 2013 PhD Shanghai Jiao Tong University 2005 BMED Nanchang University

The following are brief descriptions of the ongoing research projects in Dr. Wu's laboratory:

• Reprogramming the glia cells to functional neurons for functional recovery after spinal cord injury (NIH R01NS111776). Severe morbidity and mortality are commonly associated with spinal cord injury (SCI). Human patients who survive SCI frequently live with paralysis and extremely reduced quality of life and productivity. SCI often results in a permanent loss of neurons and the disruption of neural circuits that are critical for normal motor, sensory, and autonomic function. It is crucial to replenish the lost neurons and reconstruct the broken neural circuits for functional recovery. Unlike some other tissues or organs in the body, such as skin and liver, which can undergo self-repair through proliferation of endogenous stem or somatic cells, adult spinal cord exhibits minimal regenerative capacity. We employ a novel strategy to reprogram endogenous reactive glial cells to mature neurons for functional recovery after SCI. Glial cells are abundant and ubiquitously distributed in the adult spinal cord. They become reactive, proliferate, and form glial scars in response to damage, and play critical roles in modulating tissue damage and repair after injury. Reprogramming reactive glial cells to neurons at the injury site will reduce local glial scar formation and enhance establishment of new neural circuit resulting in functional recovery.
• A polypharmacoligical strategy to promote regeneration and recovery of function after cervical spinal cord injury (Indiana Department of Health’s Indiana Spinal Cord Injury Research Grant, ISDH58180). The pathways that convey the signals from the brain to the spinal cord are called supraspinal tracts. Among all supraspinal tracts, the corticospinal tract (CST) is the most influential pathway for voluntary movement of arms and hands in humans. Compared to other supraspinal tracts, the CST shows very limited plastic responses to traumatic SCI. Kinases play a critical role in cell processes including axon regeneration. Recently, we have shown that specifically targeting the mTOR substrate S6 Kinase 1 (S6K1) using the compound PF-4708671 (PF) promoted robust CST axonal regeneration across and beyond a C5 dorsal hemisection (C5-DH), accompanied by significant forelimb functional recoveries. Using a combination of phenotypic screening of primary neurons, biochemical profiling, information theory, and machine learning, we have discovered a top “hit” KI (RO0480500- 002; RO48), affecting “multi-targets”, so-called polypharmacology, that appears to be more effective to modulate intrinsic neuronal growth, as compared to the selective single kinase inhibitors (KIs, such as S6K1 inhibitor PF) and the weak multi-target KIs (such as Y-27562that has a strong effect only on ROCK and a weak effect on PKG and PKX). This RO48 compound was selected from the screening of 1600 kinase inhibitors (KIs); it strongly inhibits 5 important targets that synergistically modulate axon outgrowth.
• Modulation of lumbar motor circuitry after an above-level SCI and NT-3 gene therapy (NIH R01 NS103481). Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe medical problem experienced by humans with high mortality and long-term morbidity. Unfortunately, there has been no effective treatment available for SCI patients. The lumbar motoneurons (MNs) are the final common pathway for motor output to the hindlimbs. Any impairment of these MNs can cause hindlimb paralysis and muscle atrophy. When SCI occurs above the lumbar level, namely above-level injury, the lumbar MNs are not directly damaged by the trauma, but they undergo profound dendritic atrophy and synaptic stripping. While most SCI studies to date have focused on the regeneration or protection of the injured spinal cord at the injury site, few studies have explored how modulation of lumbar MN circuitry would affect pathological and functional consequences after an above-level SCI. Our goal is to develop a beneficial restorative treatment targeting lumbar MNs after an above-level SCI and to functionally dissect out how individual afferent pathways affect lumbar MN remodeling and functional recovery. In this application, we propose a central hypothesis that increasing local NT-3 levels at lumbar MN pools will stimulate the recruitment of spared axons from distinct afferent pathways and enhance their synaptic formation onto lumbar MNs. Thus, reestablishment of neural circuitry at the lumbar level forms the anatomical basis for hindlimb functional recovery after an above-level SCI. Accordingly, three specific aims are proposed to investigate the three major afferent pathways to influencing lumbar MNs function to determine their roles in NT- 3-mediated remodeling of lumbar motor circuitry and hindlimb recovery after a thoracic SCI. These pathways include the descending reticulospinal tracts (RetST), the descending propriospinal tracts (dPST), and the dorsal roots (DR) afferents. Once the functional role of each specific pathway is defined, we will used combinational approaches to target multiple pathways to maximize the treatment effect. This will be done u sing an adult mouse thoracic 9 (T9) contusive SCI model and an AAV2-NT-3 gene transfer approach to increase the level of NT-3 in MNs.
• Transhemispheric cortex remodeling promotes forelimb recovery after cervical spinal cord injury. Understanding the reorganization of neural circuits spared after spinal cord injury in the motor cortex and spinal cord would provide insight for developing therapeutics. Using optogenetic mapping we demonstrate a transhemispheric recruitment of neural circuits in the contralateral cortical M1/M2 area to improve the impaired forelimb function after a cervical  5 right-sided hemisection in mice, a model mimicking the human Brown-Séquard syndrome. This cortical reorganization can be elicited by a selective cortical optogenetic neuromodulation paradigm. Areas of whisker, jaw, and neck, together with the rostral forelimb area, on the motor cortex ipsilateral to the lesion are engaged to control the ipsilesional forelimb in both stimulation and non-stimulation groups. However, significant functional benefits are only seen in the stimulation group. Specific neuromodulation of the cortical neural circuits induces massive neural reorganization both in the motor cortex and spinal cord, constructing an alternative motor pathway in restoring impaired forelimb function.
• Professional Organizations Chinese Neurotrauma Scholar Association National Neurotrauma Society Society for Chinese Neuroscientists Society of Neurosciences

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Yanqiu Wu, PhD '22: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going

Yanqiu Wu, PhD’22, having successfully defended her thesis in September 2022, became NYU Shanghai’s third-ever doctoral graduate in Computer Science .

Wu’s WeChat signature is a quote from a Japanese anime : “Do not choose the easy road because things are difficult”. She sees this quote as an excellent summary of her experiences.

When Wu chose to pursue a PhD, some of Wu’s relatives voiced concerns. “They believe what an ideal life looks like is working a steady job and getting married early,” Wu recalled, “They couldn’t understand why I would want to continue my education in a challenging discipline and then probably land a demanding job.” A strongly independent person, Wu was determined to follow through on her passion and vision. “I want to make a living on my own, without having to depend on anyone, no matter how much effort it might require.” 

Wu’s choice, as it seems today, yielded great fruit. Fresh from graduating with excellent grades, she is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia. 

Wu’s story began years ago when she was an undergraduate in computer science at NYU Shanghai. “It was so interesting to learn how games actually work because I, though a game player, had never given much thought to how games were made and run on a computer.” Wu also got increasingly better, writing a few small programs of her own. “I was so excited when my codes worked.”

Wu with Professor Keith Ross

It was around that time that Wu met Keith Ross , Professor of Computer Science and Dean of Computer Science, Data Science, and Engineering, who would later become her PhD supervisor. Ross regularly offered research opportunities to his students during the summer, in which Wu actively took part almost every time. These summer researches, furthering her passion for computer science, laid the foundation for her advanced education in the field later. 

Encouraged by her curiosity and interest in research, Wu contemplated an application to a PhD program. “I love reading research papers to see what topics are being discussed, discover unresolved problems, and try to come up with solutions.” Although Ross was open to accepting Wu as his PhD student, he still encouraged her to actively apply to other top universities. After considering the factors of supervisor, research area, and school, Wu eventually chose to continue apprenticing under Ross at NYU Shanghai.

Wu (in the middle of front row) with her PhD fellows

Ross’s “lifelong learning” spirit made a profound impact on Wu. In her first year, Wu's team embarked on a new journey of exploring the realm of reinforcement learning. “Keith’s longtime research focus was in computer networks, and he had accomplished tremendous heights,” said Wu. Though Ross’s doctoral dissertation decades ago was relevant to reinforcement learning, picking it up again was “still like starting over”. “I think it took tremendous courage to do what Keith did and I carried this valuable lesson with me,” Wu added.

Under Ross, the team Wu was in forged a nurturing and encouraging culture, which allowed her to fully experience the true meaning of education. Following Ross’s suit, the PhD students, Wu included, were more than happy to train undergraduates in their research endeavors. “One of the undergraduates we worked with was extremely hardworking and talented. She eventually joined a PhD program in another top university under a prestigious professor,” Wu recalled, “ We were all very happy for her.” Ross and the whole team helped Wu realize that the goal of education is not about getting students to join a certain team or program but about “selflessly providing learning opportunities so that both the educators and the students would improve and unlock more possibilities.”

One of Wu’s key growth over her five years of study was her “composedness”, which here refers to her capability to handle setbacks rationally and strive for success patiently. Unlike machine learning, which has a defined learning process and a standard protocol that can be followed, the relatively new reinforcement learning is still in its infancy and requires constant exploration, testing, and optimization in an effort to move closer to an unknown optimal aim. Such a process is an iterative one. “Despite our best efforts, sometimes the algorithms we assumed were theoretically feasible underperformed in actual operation. There was no way under this circumstance to write a paper and publish the results. It was frustrating.”

When faced with such setbacks, Wu gradually became more composed, “I learned not to let emotion take control of me.” Wu formed a set of standard operating procedures for her problem solving, “I would first turn to existing papers to see if others have had similar difficulties and whether there is a solution. Drawing from the wisdom of fellow researchers is a highly efficient approach.” Wu would then have discussions with her team to list out every possible cause and remedy, and conduct experiments accordingly until the outcome was satisfactory. Ross applauds Wu for her character and problem solving skills, “She is tenacious and persevering. She worked on some research for which the early results were underwhelming, but she stuck with it and eventually got excellent results.”

Wu’s thesis dived into the theme of sample efficiency in reinforcement learning. Reinforcement learning is popular in academic research, but is not widely applied in practice. One of the core bottlenecks is sample efficiency. Reinforcement learning requires a large amount of sample data, and the process of collecting those data may incur substantial costs. “For instance, if we want the algorithm to learn how to buy and sell stocks, it must make many correct and incorrect purchases in order to receive both positive and negative rewards. In the real stock market, the loss would be unthinkable,” explained Wu.

Wu’s thesis focused on mitigating this problem by studying “how to use the least possible sample data while still making the algorithm function effectively” so that the balance between effectiveness and cost can be stricken. Wu argued reusing data is necessary due to the small sample size and she inserted relevant equations into the algorithms to adjust the accumulated bias caused by the reuse so as to give the data a proper distribution.

Wu is excited about her new journey as a postdoctoral fellow at CSIRO. “I would be applying what I’ve learnt in reinforcement learning while exploring the context of cyber security. It’s very intriguing.”

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Xuebing Wu, PhD receives grant from the Glenn Foundation

Xuebing Wu, PhD, Medicine: $523,000 over three years for a subaward from the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research for "Aging as a self-reinforcing feedback loop: investigate the role of noncoding translation."  

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About the Department

Columbia University  |  Columbia University Irving Medical Center   © 2019 Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Columbia University Department of Systems Biology Irving Cancer Research Center 1130 St. Nicholas Avenue, New York, NY 10032 (212) 851-4673

Jun Wu, PhD

Professor of Environmental & Occupational Health

Director, Graduate Programs in Environmental Health Sciences

Affiliated, Population Health & Disease Prevention

Affiliated, Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Environmental health scientist, Jun Wu, PhD, is a professor of environmental and occupational health at the UCI Program in Public Health. She has extensive experience and knowledge in examining the influences of various environmental exposures (e.g. air pollution, climate, and built environment such as green space, neighborhood resources, walkability) on reproductive outcomes (e.g. maternal and fetal health), children’s health, and other health endpoints. 

Research Interests

Dr. Wu is focused on population-based research of environmental exposure assessment, environmental epidemiology, and environmental health disparity. She also works with local and regional community partners on environmental justice issues related to air pollution, soil contamination, and climate change. View her personal research website.

Current Projects/Studies

Wu is a co-director of the UCI Center for Environmental Health Disparities Research and is the director for the PhD and Masters in Environmental Health Sciences degree programs.

She received her Masters of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from Penn State University in 2000 and her PhD degree in Environmental Health from UCLA in 2004.

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Di Wu is a biostatistician working in the bioinformatics field. She has developed novel statistical bioinformatics methods to handle biomedical and genomics data. She also has developed gene set testing methods with high citations, in the empirical Bayesian framework, to take care of small complex design and genewise correlation structure.

Dr. Wu has applied data integration strategy to identify the potential cell of origin for different breast cancer subtypes in silicon (at WEHI). Her recent projects have focused on genomic data based drug repurposing (at Harvard). She is now working on novel mediator analysis-based data integration tools to infer the likely causal relation across multiple levels of genomic, microbiome and metabolites (at UNC).

Her new project has more microbiome and Electrical Medical Records components since the announcement of her joint position in the UNC School of Dentistry the Department of Biostatistics and the Carolina Health Informatics Program in 2015.

Honors and Awards

Early Career Overseas Fellowship 2011, Australian National Health and Medical Research Council

Teaching Interests

Aug. 2016 - present: Acts as an academic mentor for a public health informatics graduate student through the Carolina Health Informatics Program 2015 - present: Serves on the dissertation committee for Sarah Kay Youny Lee through the UNC School of Dentistry 2015 Acted as co-adviser for Tanjit S. Taggar through the UNC School of Dentistry 2016 Served on the dissertation committee for Doug Wilson through the Department of Biostatistics

Service Activities

- UNC Biostatistics Computing Committee Has served as a journal referee for: - Biometrics - Nucleic Acids Research - PLoS Computational Biology - Bioinformatics - Statistics in Medicine - Briefings in Bioinformatics - BMC Bioinformatics - Statistics in Biosciences - PLoS One - ‘Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics - Elsevier’ - Biomarkers in Cancer - Evolutionary Bioinformatics - IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics - Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening - International Journal of Dentistry - Cancer Informatics journal supplement (Libertas Academica; was the lead guest editor) - JASA

• PhD, Bioinformatics, University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 2011
• MS, Biostatistics, Case Western Reserve University, 2006
• BS, Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, 1998

Information for:

FAAN FGSA PhD

Dean's professor in global health vice dean, research affiliated professor, ashman department of periodontology & implant dentistry co-director, nyu aging incubator.

433 First Ave New York , NY 10010 United States

Bei Wu's additional information

Professional overview.

Dr. Wu is Dean’s Professor in Global Health and Vice Dean for Research at the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. She is an inaugural Co-Director of the NYU Aging Incubator. Prior to joining NYU, she was the Pauline Gratz Professor of Nursing at Duke University School of Nursing. Prof. Wu is an internationally-known leader in gerontology.

As a principal investigator, Prof. Wu has led numerous projects supported by federal agencies and private foundations, including the NIH and CDC. She is currently leading several NIH-funded projects including a clinical trial to improve oral health for persons

with cognitive impairment, and a large secondary data analysis to examine how the co-occurrence of diabetes and poor oral health may lead to the development of dementia and cognitive decline. She co-leads the newly funded Rutgers-NYU Center for Asian Health Promotion and Equity. Through this center, she also leads a 5-year intervention study that focuses on supporting Chinese and Korean dementia caregivers who are at increased risk for high blood pressure and diabetes due to the physical and emotional demands of caregiving. She is a director of the Research and Education Core for the NIA-funded Asian Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR).

As a scholar, Prof. Wu is an internationally known leader in gerontology. Her scholarship has been distinguished by interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers in various disciplines, including nursing and dentistry, in the US and abroad. Her research areas cover a wide range of topics related to aging and global health, including oral health, long-term care, dementia, and caregiving. She is one of the first in the nation to study the linkages between oral health and cognitive decline in older adults. Her research has also addressed knowledge gaps in the linkages between oral health and diabetes.

Prof. Wu has devoted much of her time to training the next generation of aging and nursing scientists from dozens of academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad. She has mentored hundreds of faculty members, visiting scholars, and students from various disciplines, including nursing, gerontology, dentistry, medicine, social work, demography, public health, sociology, public policy, geography, and economics. She is successful in mentoring several dozens of early-stage faculty members in receiving competitive funding from NIH, Robert Wood Johnson Scholars, the Alzheimer’s Society (UK), National Science Foundation of China, China Medical Board, National Medical Research Council (Singapore), and many others. 

Prof. Wu is a productive researcher. She has published more than 600 peer-reviewed papers, books, reports, and conference abstracts. Her extensive publications cover a wide range of topics related to aging and global health. She has delivered presentations at hundreds of conferences as an invited speaker. Her work has been widely recognized in the field. Research findings from her team have been featured by the National Institute on Aging, and in numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, CNN, BBC, U.S. News and World Report, MarketWatch, CBS News, Reuters, AARP Bulletin, China Daily, Daily Mail, South China Morning Post, and Financial Review.

Her achievement has been recognized by many international and national organizations and she is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, and the New York Academy of Medicine. She is an honorary member of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International, and is the former president of the Geriatric Oral Research Group of the International Association for Dental Research. She has served on a number of NIH review panels and is a frequent reviewer for multiple international funding agencies. She was honored as the 2017 IADR Distinguished Scientist in Geriatric Oral Research. She is the recipient of the 2022 Wei Hu Inspiration Award from the China Health Policy and Management Society. 

Specialties

Professional membership, honors and awards, faculty honors awards, publications, the association between trajectories of perceived unmet needs for home and community-based services and life satisfaction among chinese older adults: the moderating effect of psychological resilience, the informal discussion of advance care planning among chinese older adults: do education and social media use matter, the moderating role of self-rated oral health on the association between oral health status and subjective well-being: findings from chinese older adults in hawaiʻi and taiwan, adverse childhood experiences and oral health conditions among middle-aged and older chinese adults: exploring the moderating roles of education and gender, age differences in the effects of multi-component periodontal treatments on oral and metabolic health among people with diabetes mellitus: a meta-epidemiological study, age and mental health symptoms among chinese persons with hiv: the mediating and moderating role of perceived discrimination, age and sex differences in the associations among socioeconomic status, affective reactivity to daily stressors, and physical health in the midus study, aging and oral health: biological and sociobehavioral perspectives, the association between intergenerational support and self-rated health among chinese older adults: do resilience and gender matter, association between perceived risk of alzheimer's disease and related dementias and cognitive function among u.s. older adults.

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CCNI | Clinical Computational Neuroimaging Group

Department of radiology, massachusetts general hospital.

Ona Wu, PhD FAHA

Contact Information

Research focus (disease), research focus (methods).

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Wu Named New Chair of Biomedical Engineering

Yun Wu, PhD, will take over as chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering on Sept. 1. 

By Marcene Robinson

Published July 31, 2023

Yun Wu, PhD , has been named chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering , a joint program of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences .

She will assume the role Sept. 1.

Wu, associate professor of biomedical engineering, succeeds Albert H. Titus, PhD , who has served as department chair since 2012; he will return to his faculty role as professor of biomedical engineering.

Faculty Member, Noted Researcher at UB Since 2013

“I am confident that the Department of Biomedical Engineering will continue to thrive and reach new heights under the leadership of Professor Wu,” says Kemper Lewis, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “With a deep commitment to academic excellence and a passion for nurturing the growth of both students and faculty, Professor Wu brings a wealth of experience and an inspiring vision to the position.

“I thank Professor Titus for his outstanding leadership and dedication to the department, school and UB,” says Lewis. “It is not hyperbole to say that he built the department and has played an instrumental role in its rise to one of the top biomedical engineering programs in the country.”

Allison Brashear, MD, MBA , UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School, says, “With her decade-long tenure at UB and extensive research experience, Dr. Wu has a deep understanding and appreciation for our talented, accomplished team in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, which has thrived under the skillful leadership of Dr. Titus. I am confident she will build upon the program’s history of innovation and success.”

A UB faculty member since 2013, Wu has made significant contributions to the development of innovative nanotherapeutics and in vitro diagnostic assays for cancer treatment and diagnosis. She has received 30 funded awards totaling over $16 million from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, American Lung Association, Cancer Research Institute and SUNY. 

Wu has published 65 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious journals and has received numerous awards, including the UB Exceptional Scholar: Sustained Achievement Award in 2023; the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ Senior Researcher of the Year Award in 2021 and Early Career Researcher of the Year Award in 2016; and the Biomedical Engineering Innovation and Career Development Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2013.

Accomplished Academic Leader

A decorated educator and an accomplished academic leader, Wu was awarded the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ Early Career Teacher of the Year Award and previously served as director of graduate studies in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

“I am incredibly grateful for the trust and confidence that has been placed in me to lead this department,” she says. “Biomedical engineering is a field that holds immense potential to transform lives through groundbreaking research, innovative technologies and impactful collaborations. The true power of our department lies in the collective expertise and dedication of our talented faculty, staff and students.

“I firmly believe that we can leverage these strengths to push the boundaries of biomedical engineering and make significant contributions to human health and well-being.”

Wu received a doctorate in chemical and biomolecular engineering from The Ohio State University.

A Decade of Departmental Growth

Albert H. Titus, PhD

Titus concludes his service as chair after more than a decade of leading the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He played a critical role in the creation of the department, leading development of its undergraduate, graduate and combined-degree programs in biomedical engineering.

During his tenure, the department has grown to 15 full-time faculty and over 30 affiliated faculty, and serves more than 300 undergraduate and over 100 graduate students. He led the department through its first successful ABET accreditation in 2015. And, as of 2023, the department is ranked No. 12 in NIH funding among biomedical engineering departments by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.

Titus’s focus will return to research, where his interests span a diverse array of fields, including biomedical sensors, artificial vision, and hardware and software for artificial neural networks.

His innovative work has led to new ways to improve visual processing for autonomous systems, such as robots and planetary explorers; development of specialized devices that detect biological signals from the human body; and advancement of electronic imaging by mimicking the sensing and processing characteristics of living organisms, such as those of the human eye.

What people with cancer should know: https://www.cancer.gov/coronavirus

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Get the latest research information from NIH: https://www.covid19.nih.gov

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I am a Genetic and Molecular Epidemiologist.

Lang Wu, Ph.D.

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Dr. Lang Wu, PhD, is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Population Science in the Pacific Program of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. He has been trained in multiple disciplines of genetic and molecular epidemiology, bioinformatics, and biostatistics. He joined the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2019 and is very passionate about the research to identify novel genes and biomarkers to improve etiology understanding and risk assessment of prostate and pancreatic cancers across multi-ethnic populations. In this funded study (R01CA263494-01A1), together with Dr. Chong Wu and other collaborators, Dr. Wu will conduct a proteome-wide association study (PWAS) in prostate cancer to identify putative causal protein biomarkers for prostate cancer risk and aggressiveness across Africans and Europeans, functionally characterize top protein biomarkers for their roles in prostate cancer biology, and develop and validate ethnicspecific and pan-ethnic prediction models for prostate cancer risk and aggressiveness. This study will generate important knowledge regarding prostate cancer etiology and develop improved prostate cancer risk/aggressiveness prediction models across Africans and Europeans. The proposed new methods can also be applied to other complex diseases.

To request edits to this profile, please contact Mark Alexander at [email protected] .

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Single Metal Site Catalysts for Sustainable and Clean Hydrogen Energy

Gang wu, phd.

Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

University at Buffalo

Friday, April 19 | 11:00 a.m. | 223 Jarvis Hall

Fossil fuels have been overwhelmingly used in many industry sectors in past decades, suffering from significant CO2 and other pollutant emissions, low efficiency, and nonsustainability. Clean and efficient energy storage and conversion via electrochemical reactions associated with hydrogen, oxygen, and water have attracted substantial attention for energy and environmental sustainability. Among compelling energy technologies, hydrogen proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are a promising zero-emission power source for transportation to mitigate environmental pollution and reduce fossil-fuel dependence. Meanwhile, water electrolyzers have been clearly identified as the sustainable pathway to produce cheap green hydrogen efficiently using renewable electricity. However, current materials, including catalysts, membranes, and ionomers, cannot meet the challenging targets of high-efficiency, low-cost, and long-term durability of hydrogen fuel cells and water electrolyzers. Developing high-performance catalysts from earth-abundant elements to replace current precious metals is crucial for making these hydrogen technologies viable for large-scale clean energy applications. U.S. DOE has been continuously supporting his research group at SUNY-Buffalo in the past decade, aiming to address materials issues by designing and scaling up innovative and highly efficient catalysts and electrodes. This talk discusses recent understanding, progress, achievement, and perspective on developing low-cost and high-performance catalysts based on newly emerging atomically dispersed metal-nitrogen-carbon materials for sustainable and clean hydrogen technologies.

Gang Wu is a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University at Buffalo (UB), The State University of New York (SUNY-Buffalo). He completed his Ph.D. studies at the Harbin Institute of Technology in 2004, followed by extensive postdoctoral training at Tsinghua University (2004-2006), the University of South Carolina (2006-2008), and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) (2008-2010). Then, he was promoted to a staff scientist at LANL. He joined SUNY-Buffalo as a tenure-track assistant professor in 2014 and was quickly promoted to a tenured associate professor in 2018 and a full professor in 2020. His research focuses on functional materials and catalysts for electrochemical energy technologies. He has published more than 330 papers in prestigious journals, including Science, Nature Energy, Nature Catalysis, JACS, Angew Chem, and Advanced Materials. His papers have been cited more than > 50,000 times with an H-index of 120 (Google Scholar) by November 2023. He is currently leading and participating in multiple fuel cell, battery, and renewable fuel (e.g., NH3) related projects with a total research funding of more than $10.0 M. Dr. Wu was continuously acknowledged by Clarivate Analytics as one of the Highly Cited Researchers since 2018. He recently received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship & Creative Activities (2021) and UB’s Exceptional Scholar–Sustained Achievement Award (2020). He serves as an Associate Editor for a few journals, including the Journal of the Electrochemical Society (JES), the Electrochemical Society’s flagship journal.

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Wu Laboratory: Xu Wu, PhD

• Visit lab website

Contact Information

Charlestown Navy Yard Building 149 149 13th Street Charlestown , MA   02129

Email: [email protected]

Explore This Lab

The Laboratory of Xu Wu, PhD, at Massachusetts General Hospital is interested in using chemical biology and functional genomics to investigate cell signaling pathways that are involved in the regulation of stem cell fate and tumorigenesis, as well as essential cellular functions such as terminal differentiation, senescence and quiescence. Our goal is to discover novel therapeutic targets and agents for the treatment of degenerative diseases and cancers.

More information can also be found at xwulab.org .

Research Projects

Chemical biology and functional genomics of regeneration and cancer.

One of the important aspects of life science research is to understand human diseases at the molecular level and develop therapeutics targeting the disease relevant gene products. It remains challenging to develop new therapeutics with a traditional “target-based” approach, mainly because many of the disease relevant genes are not easily “druggable,” and many human diseases are highly complex and involve multiple factors. It is difficult, and maybe unrealistic, to identify a “magic bullet” for such diseases. Therefore, it would be important to develop new strategies to understand cellular signaling networks and how they are “rewired” in diseases. Such work might reveal the critical “nodes” of the signaling network, allowing the development of effective therapeutics. Our group is interested in using chemical and functional genomics approaches to study signaling networks and cellular processes in diseases, aiming to discover novel chemical modulators and pharmacologically validate new therapeutic targets for cancer and degenerative diseases.

1. Chemical Approaches for Posttranslational Protein Palmitoylation

The covalent attachment of lipid moieties is an essential modification of proteins. S-palmitoylation is a dynamic and reversible process. Cys-rich DHHC-family of palmitoyl acyltransferases (PATs) have been shown to catalyze palmitoylation, and other protein acyl transferase might also exist. Dynamic palmitoylation of proteins has been linked to the regulation of membrane attachment, trafficking and signaling activities of membrane bound receptors, kinases and G-proteins. Although palmitoylation is an important posttranslational modification, the detailed mechanisms and its function in signal transduction are largely unknown due to the lack of proper tools and probes to dissect this process. There are at least 23 DHHC containing PATs in human genome and their functions are elusive. To this end, we are interested in using combinatorial synthesis, affinity-based proteomics and medicinal chemistry to address the key questions of this modification: 1) What are the substrates for each of the PATs and are there other proteins that catalyze such reaction? 2) What are the functions of dynamic palmitoylation in signal transduction? 3) Can we develop specific inhibitors for PATs and acyl-protein thioesterases (APTs) to dissect the dynamic regulations?

2. Chemical Approaches to Dissect Signal cross-talking and “Rewiring” in Degenerative Diseases and Cancer

Cellular behaviors are regulated by a complex network of signal transduction pathways. The precise coordination and orchestration of multiple signaling pathways are essential for proper cellular functions. In diseases like cancer, oncogenic events often “rewire” the signaling network, resulting aberrant cell growth, survival and motility through non-canonical signaling cascades. Identification of small molecule tools that regulate the “nodes” of the crosstalk would be very important to understand the “rewired” signaling network and develop novel and effective therapeutics.

One essential question that we would like to understand is how cell growth is coordinated through multiple signals including growth factors, cell-cell contact and nutrients. We developed high throughput screening strategies to interrogate the signaling networks involving Hedgehog, Wnt and Hippo signaling and their interactions with other key signaling pathways. We are developing novel chemical modulators of these networks and pharmacologically validating novel therapeutic targets for cancer and degenerative diseases.

3. Chemical and functional genomic approaches for cellular senescence and terminal differentiation

Cellular senescence is characterized as irreversible cell cycle exit as a result of cells reaching their proliferation limit or under oncogenic stress and is often linked to aging and serves as a barrier for oncogenic transformation. Small molecule and genetic factors that modulate cellular senescence and terminal differentiation would be useful to reveal novel mechanisms underlying these processes and provide new therapeutic approaches for cancer. We are interested in discovering new chemical tools that modulate cellular senescence, reinstall oncogene-induced senescence in cancer cells and induction of terminal differentiation of stem cells, progenitors and cancer cells. We will investigate the mode of action of these tools and pharmacologically validate the new targets.

Lab Members

Michael DeRan, Ph.D Postdoctoral Research Fellow B.S. Biochemistry, St. Bonaventure University M.S. Biochemistry, University of Rochester Ph.D. Biochemistry,  University of Rochester Michael finished his Ph.D in Biochemistry at Prof. Jiyong Zhao’s lab at University of Rochester. His Ph.D work was focused on NPAT-mediated transcriptional regulation of histone gene during cell cycle, and the function of NPAT in DNA damage. Michael is now investigating the signaling crosstalks of Hippo pathway and other essential signaling pathways using chemical tools.  Baohui Zheng, Ph.D Postdoctoral Research Fellow B.S. and M.S. Chemistry, Nankai University Ph.D. Organic Chemistry,  Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Baohui was trained as an organic chemist at Prof. Xue-Long Hou’s lab at SIOC/CAS. His Ph.D work was focused on Pd-Catalyzed asymmetric allylic substitution reaction. Baohui is now working on medicinal chemistry and chemical biology of novel modulators of pathways that controls stem cell fate and tumorigenesis.

Xinyan Li, Ph.D Visiting Scholar/Research Fellow B.A, Medicine, Nanjing Medical University M.A. Pharmacology, Dalian Medical University Ph.D. Pharmacology, China Pharmaceutical University Xinyan is a visiting scholar from Shanghai Jiaotong University. She worked on high throughput screening and mechanistic studies of liver cirrhosis before. Her current work is to develop novel chemical biology tools to study Hedgehog and Hippo pathways and protein palmitoylation.

Publications

1. Haiyan Tao, Qihui Jin, Dong?In Koo, Xuebing Liao, Nathan P. Englund, Yan Wang, Peter G. Schultz, Marion Dorsch, Joseph Kelleher, and Xu Wu*. “Small Molecule Antagonists in Distinct Binding Modes Inhibit Drug Resistant Mutant of Smoothened” 2011, Chemistry & Biology, 18, 1-6. 2. Jun Liu, Kristen Johnson, Jie Li, Victoria Piamonte, Brian M. Steffy, Mindy Hsieh, Nicholas Ng, Jay Zhang, John R. Walker, Sheng Ding, Ken Muneoka, Xu Wu, Richard Glynne, Peter G. Schultz*. “A Regenerative Phenotype in Mice with a Point Mutation in TGFBR1” 2011, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. Submitted. 3. Silvia Buonamici, Juliet Williams, Anlai Wang, Ribo Guo, Anthony Vattay, Kathy Hsiao, Jing Yuan, John Green, Lance Ostrom, Paul Fordjour, Dustin L. Anderson, Michael Morrissey, John E. Monahan, Joseph F. Kelleher, Stefan Peukert, Shifeng Pan, Xu Wu, Sauveur?Michel Maira, Carlos Garcia?Echeverria, Kimberly J. Briggs, D. Neil Watkins, Yungmae Yao, Christoph Lengauer, Markus Warmuth, William R. Sellers, Marion Dorsch*. “Targeting resistance to Smoothened antagonists by inhibiting the PI3K pathway.” Science Translational Medicine, 2010, 2, 51ra70. 4. Hans Skvara, Frank Kalthoff, Marion Dorsch, Joseph Kelleher, Xu Wu, Shifeng Pan, Lesanka Mickel, Christopher Schuster, Georg Stary, Ahmad Jalili, Olivier David, Ana Monica Costa Antunes, Arthur P. Bertolino, Anton Stuetz, Kristine Rose, Georg Stingl, Menno A. De Rie* “Topical treatment of Basal cell carcinomas, occurring in patients with Gorlin’s syndrome, with a Smoothened inhibitor” Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 2011, published online on March 22, doi:10.1038/jid.2011.48 5. Xiaoyi V. Hu, Tania M. A. Rodrigues, Haiyan Tao, Robert K. Baker, Loren Miraglia, Anthony P. Orth, Gary E. Lyons*, Peter G. Schultz* and Xu Wu*, “A Functional Genomics Screen Identifies RNF4 as a Regulator of DNA Demethylation” 2010, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 107(34):15087-92 6. Shifeng Pan*, Xu Wu, Jiqing Jiang, Wenqi Gao, Yongqin Wan, Dai Cheng, Dong Han, Jun Liu, Nathan P. Englund, Yan Wang, Stefan Peukert, Karen Miller?Moslin, Jing Yuan, Ribo Guo, Melissa Matsumoto, Anthony Vattay, Yun Jiang, Jeffrey Tsao, Fangxian Sun, AnneMarie C. Pferdekamper, Stephanie Dodd, Tove Tuntland, Wieslawa Maniara, Joseph F. Kelleher, III, Yung?mae Yao, Markus Warmuth, Juliet Williams and Marion Dorsch, “Discovery of NVP? LDE225, a Potent and Selective Smoothened Antagonist” ACS Med. Chem. Lett. Published online, 2010, DOI: 10.1021/ml10003077. 7. Yahua Liu, Qiang Ding and Xu Wu* “Concise Regiospecific Synthesis of 5?chloropyrido[4,3? d]pyrimidin?4(3H)?one” Synthesis, 2010, No. 1, 0030–0032x 8. Xu Wu and Peter G. Schultz* “Synthesis at the Interface of Chemistry and Biology” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2009; 131(35):12497?515.

This paper is the first JACS Perspectives published in 130 yrs history of the flagship journal of American Chemical Society.

JACS Perspectives is a new series of review articles for JACS to capture the new concepts and interdisciplinary chemical research.

Highlighted by JACS editor. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (35).

Highlighted in Chemical & Engineering News.

9. Shoutian Zhu, Heiko Wurdak, Yan Wang, Anna Galkin, Haiyan Tao, Jie Li, Costas Lyssiotis, Feng Yan, Bu Tuu, Loren Miraglia, John Walker, Fanxiang Sun, Anthony Orth, Jennifer Harris, Peter G. Schultz* and Xu Wu* “A genomic screen identifies TYRO3 as a MITF regulator in melanoma ” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009; 106(40):17025?30 10. Shoutian Zhu, Heiko Wurdak, Jian Wang, Costas A. Lyssiotis, Eric C. Peters, Charles Cho, Xu Wu*, and Peter G. Schultz* “A Small Molecule Primes Embryonic Stem Cells for Differentiation” Cell Stem Cell 2009; 4(5):416?426.

Highlighted in Nature Chemical Biology 5, 456­457 (2009). Endowing Endoderm. Highlighted in Cell Stem Cell 4, 373­374 (2009). Using Small Molecules to Great Effect in Stem Cell Differentiation. Highlighted in Molecular Interventions 9, 167 (2009). Stauprimide: A Small Molecule Directs Stem Cells to Differentiate.

11. Weidong Wang, John R. Walker, Xia Wang, Matthew S. Tremblay, Jae Wook Lee, Xu Wu, and Peter G. Schultz* “Identification of small?molecule inducers of pancreatic β?cell expansion” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009;106(5):1427?32.

12. Yahua Liu, Qiang Ding and Xu Wu* “Rearrangement of N,N?Di?tert?butoxycarbonyl?pyridin?4? amines and Formation of Polyfunctional Pyridines” The Journal of Organic Chemistry 2008; 73(15):6025?8. 13. Jongkook Lee, Xu Wu, Maria Pasca di Magliano, Eric C. Peters, Yan Wang, Jiyong Hong, Matthias Hebrok, Sheng Ding, Charles Y. Cho, Peter G. Schultz. “A Small?Molecule Antagonist of the Hedgehog Signaling Pathway.” Chembiochem. 2007; 8(16):1916?1919. 14. Costas A. Lyssiotis, John Walker, Chunlei Wu, Toru Kondo, Peter G. Schultz* and Xu Wu* “Inhibition of Histone Deacetylase Activity Induces Developmental Plasticity in Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cells” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 104(38):14982?7.

Highlighted in Cell 131, 197­198 (2007). Leading Edge: Glial Precursors Break Their Commitment.

15. Yibing Qyang, Silvia Martin?Puig, Murali Chiravuri, Shuibing Chen, Huansheng Xu, Lei Bu, Xin Jiang, Lizhu Lin, Anne Granger, Alessandra Moretti, Leslie Caron, Xu Wu, Jonathan Clarke,Makoto M. Taketo, Karl?Ludwig Laugwitz, Randall T. Moon, Peter Gruber, Sylvia M. Evans, Sheng Ding, and Kenneth R. Chien* “The Renewal and Differentiation of Isl1+ Cardiovascular Progenitors Are Controlled by a Wnt/β?Catenin Pathway" Cell Stem Cell, 2007 16;1(2):165?79.

16. Jun Liu, Xu Wu, Brian Mitchell, Chris Kintner, Sheng Ding and Peter G. Schultz* “Small Molecule Agonists of the Wnt Signaling Pathway” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2005. 44. 2?4.

17. Xu Wu, John Walker, Jie Zhang, Sheng Ding and Peter G. Schultz* “Purmorphamine Induces Osteogenesis by Activation of Hedgehog Signaling Pathway” Chemistry & Biology, 2004, 11(9), 1229?38.

This work has been reported by many news agencies, including Bio.com, and has been reviewed in several renowned scientific journals.

18. Shuibing Chen, Qisheng Zhang, Xu Wu, Peter G. Schultz*, and Sheng Ding* “Dedifferentiation of Lineage?Committed Cells by a Small Molecule” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2004, 126 (2), pp 410–411 19. Xu Wu, Sheng Ding and Peter G. Schultz* “Small molecule Inducers of Cardiomyogenesis in Embryonic Stem Cells” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2004, 126(6), 1590?1591.

This work has been reported by many news agencies, including American Chemical Society news center, Modern Drug Discovery and Palm Beach Post, and has been reviewed in several renowned scientific journals.

20. Xu Wu, Sheng Ding, Qiang Ding, Nathanael S. Gray and Peter G. Schultz* “A Small Molecule with Osteogenesis?Inducing Activity in Multipotent Mesenchymal Progenitor Cells” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2002, 124(49), 14520?14521.

This work has been reviewed in several renowned scientific journals.

21. Sheng Ding, Nathanael S. Gray*, Qiang Ding, Xu Wu and Peter G. Schultz* “Resin?capture and release strategy toward combinatorial libraries of 2,6,9?substituted purines.” Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry, 2002, 4(2), 183?186. 22. Sheng Ding, Nathanael S. Gray*, Xu Wu, Qiang Ding and Peter G. Schultz* “A combinatorial scaffold approach toward kinase?directed heterocycle libraries.” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2002, 124(8), 1594?1596. 23. Bari A. Pender, Xu Wu, Paul H. Axelson, and Barry S. Cooperman* “Toward a Rational Design of Peptide Inhibitors of Ribonucleotide Reductase: Structure?Function and Modeling Studies.” Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2001, 44(1), 36?46. 24. Xu Wu and Barry S. Cooperman* “Synthesis and biological activity of bivalent inhibitor of mouse ribonucleotide reductase.” Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 2000, 10, 2387?2389 Patents

1. Ding, Qiang; Okram, Barun; Uno, Tetsuo; Liu, Yahua; Jin, Yunho; Jin, Qihui; Wu, Xu; Che, Jianwei; Liu, Hong; He, Xiaohui; Zhu, Xuefeng; Yang, Kunyong.Compounds and compositions as kinase inhibitors. Provisional Patent Filed. 2. Zhu, Shoutian; Wurdak, Heiko; Wang, Yan; Tao, Haiyan; Schultz, Peter G; Wu, X; Tyro3 as a therapeutic target for melanoma. Provisional Patent Filed. 3. Okram, Barun; Uno, Tetsuo; Ding, Qiang; Liu, Yahua; Jin, Yunho; Jin, Qihui; Wu, Xu; Che, Jianwei; Yan, S. Frank.Compounds and compositions as kinase inhibitors.PCT Int. Appl. (2009), 324pp. CODEN: PIXXD2 WO 2009097287 A1 20090806 AN 2009:944707CAPLUS 4. Dierks, Christine; Warmuth, Markus; Wu, Xu.Biphenylcarboxamide derivatives as hedgehog pathway modulators.PCT Int. Appl. (2008),76pp. CODEN: PIXXD2 WO 2008154259 A1 20081218 CAN 150:48036 AN 2008:1502750CAPLU 5. Gao, Wenqi; Jiang, Jiqing; Wan, Yongqin; Cheng, Dai; Han, Dong; Wu, Xu; Pan, Shifeng. Substituted biphenyl amide compounds and compositions as hedgehog pathway modulators.PCT Int. Appl. (2007),60 pp. CODEN: PIXXD2 WO 2007131201 A2 20071115 CAN 147:534706 AN 2007:1303209CAPLUS 6. Wu, Xu; Ding, Sheng; Schultz, Peter G.Compounds and compositions as hedgehog pathway modulators.PCT Int. Appl. (2006),28 pp. CODEN: PIXXD2 WO 2006050351 A2 20060511 CAN 144:445331 AN 2006:440130CAPLUS 7. Wu, Xu; Ding, Sheng; Schultz, Peter G.2,4­Diaminopyrimidines as inducers of cardiomyogenesis, their preparation and use in the treatment of cardiomyopathy.PCT Int. Appl. (2005),56 pp. CODEN: PIXXD2 WO 2005068437 A1 20050728 CAN 143:172888 AN 2005:673272CAPLUS 8. Wu, Xu; Ding, Sheng; Gray, Nathanael S.Purine derivatives for inducing osteogenesis.U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. (2004),33 pp. CODEN: USXXCO US 2004157864 A1 20040812 CAN 141:185125 AN 2004:654776CAPLUS

View my publications at PubMed

Graduate Education

Office of graduate and postdoctoral education, phd defense by yuxi wu, april 11, 2024.

Title: Designing Collective Action Systems for User Privacy

Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science

School of Interactive Computing

Georgia Institute of Technology

Date:  Thursday, April 11, 2024

Time:  10:00AM to 1:00PM EDT

Location (in-person):  TSRB 223

Location (virtual): Zoom Link

Dr. Sauvik Das (co-advisor) – Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

Dr. Keith Edwards (co-advisor) – School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Joseph Calandrino – Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission

Dr. Christopher Le Dantec – School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology & Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University

Dr. Richmond Wong – School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Ellen Zegura – School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology

People feel concerned, angry, frustrated when subjected to surveillance, data breaches and other privacy-violating experiences with large institutions. However, they also feel helpless to effect change. Collective action may empower groups of people affected by such experiences to jointly voice their stories of live harm and demand redress.

In this thesis, I show that considering users’ privacy concerns and lived harms on a collective level can empower users through allowing them to (1) understand they are not alone in their experiences; (2) recognize that their harms are significant and measurable; and (3) be equipped with the appropriate tools to regularly speak out about these harms. I do this through a series of work in which I create a unified collective voice of privacy concerns, interpret the unified voice in existing legal lenses of harm, and imagine formal ways to measure and respond to privacy harms. Reflecting upon my findings from this work, I discuss how the current lack of a collective action framing within the usable privacy and security field has led to the community not addressing multiple long-standing problems, and how my work can inform future directions of research in the field.

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• 414-229-4778
• Northwest Quadrant B 6438
• Health Care Informatics Certificate
• Health Care Informatics MS
• Health Care Informatics and Administration Mentor

Min Wu, PhD

• Associate Professor, Health Care Informatics & Administration

Speaker Topics

• Information Systems, Health Care

Interests & Expertise

Min Wu’s primary research interests are to identify unmet medical needs and implement technologies in their solutions. Current research interests include biomedical database applications, dental informatics, public health informatics, clinical informatics, ROC analysis in computer-based medical education and testing, decision-making (knowledge server) and human-computer interaction (HCI).

Selected Publications

Alanazi, Eman M., Alanzi, Turki M., Wu, Min, and Luo, Jake.  “Patients’ unmet information needs and gaps of obstetric ultrasound exam: A qualitative content analysis of social media platforms.”   Informatics in Medicine Unlocked  80. (2022).

Alarifi, Mohammad, Jabour, Abdulrahman M., Wu, Min, Aldosary, Abdullah, Almanaa, Mansour, and Luo, Jake.  “Proposed Questions to Assess the Extent of Knowledge in Understanding the Radiology Report Language.”   International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health  19.18 (2022): 11808.

Alarifi, Mohammad, Patrick, Timothy B., Jabour, Abdulrahman, Wu, Min, and Luo, Jake. “Designing a Consumer-Friendly Radiology Report using a Patient-Centered Approach.”  Journal of Digital Imaging . (2021): 1-12.

Alarifi, Mohammad, Patrick, Timothy B., Jabour, Abdulrahman, Wu, Min, and Luo, Jake. “Understanding patient needs and gaps in radiology reports through online discussion forum analysis.”  Insights into imaging  12.1 (2021): 1-9.

Alarif, Mohammad, Patrick, Timothy, Jabour, Abdulrahman, Wu, Min, and Luo, Jake.  “Full Radiology Report through Patient Web Portal: A Literature Review.”   Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health  17. (2020): 3673.

Wu, Min, and Luo, Jake.  “Wearable Technology Applications in Healthcare: A Literature Review.”   Online Journal of Nursing Informatics  23.3 (2019).

Zhao, Yuehua, Zhang, Jin, and Wu, Min.  “Finding Users' Voice on Social Media: An Investigation of Online Support Groups for Autism-Affected Users on Facebook.”   Int J Environ Res Public Health  16.23 (2019): pii: E4804.

Wu, Min. “Modeling of an Intelligent Electronic Medical Records System.”  Biomed J Sci & Tech Res  19.4 (2019).

Shimpi, NA, Susan, MR., Zhao, HM, Wu, Min, and Acharya, A.  “Development of a Periodontal Risk Assessment Model for Primary Care Providers in an Interdisciplinary Setting.”   Technology and Health Care . (2019): pp. 1-12.

Luo, Jake, Chen, Weiheng, Wu, Min, and Weng, Chunhua.  “Systematic data ingratiation of clinical trial recruitment locations for geographic-based query and visualization.”   International Journal of Medical Informatics  108. (2017): 85-91.

Luo, Jake, Wu, Min, and Chen, Weiheng.  “Geographical Distribution and Trends of Clinical Trial Recruitment Sites in Developing and Developed Countries.”   Journal of Health Informatics in Developing Countries  11.1 (2017): 18.

Wu, Min.  Information Technology in Healthcare: What Professionals Need to Know.  1. Cognella Academic Publishing, 2016: 114.

Luo, Jake, Wu, Min, Gopukumar, Deepika, and Zhao, Yiqing.  “Big Data Application in Biomedical Research and Health Care: A Literature Review.”   Biomedical Informatics Insights  8. (2016): BII.S31559.

Luo, Zhihui, Wu, Min, and Zhao, Yiqing. “Big Data Applications in Biomedical Informatics, (In Chinese).”  Journal of Medical Informatics  36.5 (2015): 2-9.

Wu, Min, and Ding, Yiming.  Biomedical Informatics.  Shandong University Press, 2015: 116.

Wu, Min, Luo, Zhihui, and Weng, Chunhua. “Personalized Medicine.”  Journal of Medical Informatics  34.10 (2013): 2-7.

Wu, Min, Luo, Jake, and Weng, C.  “Discussion and research on personalized medicine.”   Journal of Medical Informatics  34.20 (2013): 2-7.

Wu, Min. “M-Health Application.”  Journal of Medical Informatics  33.1 (2012): 2-5.

Wu, Min, Huang, Kun, and Huang, Wei.  “Promote Health Literacy Using Information Technologies.”   Journal of Medical Informatics (In Chinese)  32.9 (2011): 7-11.

Wu, Min.  “New Act on Electronic Health Records in USA: Meaningful Use Standard.”   Journal of Medical Informatics  32.7 (2011): 15-17.

Wu, Min, and Shang, Tong.  “Medical Informatics Applications to Health Disaster Management in USA.”   Journal of Medical Informatics  30.5 (2009): 1-5.

Wu, Min, Zhang, Xiao, Koenig, Lisa, Lynch, John, Wirtz, Thomas, Mao, En, and Ying, Lei. “Web-based Training Method for Interpretation of Dental Images.”  Journal of Digital Imaging  23.4 (2009): 493-500.

Ying, Lei, Liu, Bing, Steckner, MC, Wu, GH, Wu, Min, and Li, SJ. “A Statistical Approach to SENSE Regularization With Arbitrary k-Space Trajectories.”  Magnetic Resonance in Medicine  60. (2008): 414–421.

Wu, Min, Rhyner, Paula M., Thao, C, Kraniak, L, Cronk, C, and Cruise, K.  “A tablet-pc application for the Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP).”   Journal of Medical Systems  31.6 (2007): 537-541.

Wu, Min. “Design of Tele-Educational System for Interpreting Dental Tumor Images.”  Journal of Medical Systems  30.5 (2006): 351-62.

Wu, Min, Thao, C, Mu, X, and Munson, EV. “A fisheye viewer for microarray-based gene expression data.”  BMC Bioinformatics . (2006).

Wu, Min. “Real-time ROC Analysis to Evaluate Radiologist’ Performance of Interpreting Mammography.”  Communications of the Association for Information Systems  16. (2005): 340-355.

Zheng, Y, Wu, Min, Cole, E, and Pisano, E D. “Online annotation tool for digital mammography.”  Academic Radiology  11.5 (2004): 566-72.

Wu, Min.  Overview of Medical Informatics.  1. Tsinghua University Press and Interpress, 2003: 169-182.

Wu, Min, Zheng, Y, and Pisano, E D. “NLM tele-educational system for radiology residents interpreting mammography.”  Proceedings of the American Medical Informatics Association . Proceedings of the American Medical Informatics Association, (2002): 909-13.

Wu, Min. “Magnetic Properties of Ball-Milled Mn Nanoparticles.”  Superlattices and Microstructures  29.4 (2001): 273-279.

Wu, Min, Yan, Shisheng, and Liu, Yihua. “Magnetoresistance of annealed CoNb/Cu multilayers with amorphous CoNb magnetic layers.”  Japanese Journal of Apply Physics  36.5a (1997): 2652 - 2655.

Wu, Min, and Lai, Kangshen. “Design of optical system for laser digitizer.”  Laser Technology  19.1 (1995): 42-45.

Honors & Awards

Best Article Award  (2010)  Journal of Digital Imaging .

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Peng Wu PhD Dissertation Defense

April 12, 2024 @ 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm.

Announcing: PhD Dissertation Defense

Name: Peng Wu

Title: Bayesian Data Fusion for Distributed Learning

Date: 4/12/2024

Time: 12:30:00 PM

Location: ISEC 532

Committee Members: Prof. Pau Closas (Advisor) Prof. Deniz Erdogmus Prof. Lili Su

Abstract: The necessity for distributed data fusion arises from the increasing demand to integrate diverse and voluminous data sources, especially in applications where large numbers of users are collaborating to perform inference and learning tasks. This integration is crucial when data is available in a distributed manner or originates from various sensor types, aiming to deduce specific quantities of interest accurately. Moreover, the importance of privacy cannot be overstated, particularly in scenarios where sensitive information, such as location data, is involved. Federated learning emerges as a pivotal solution in this context, enabling model training on local datasets without the need to exchange the data itself, thus preserving user privacy. However, the deployment of these technologies encounters significant challenges, including the multiple counting problem in data fusion, where data may be redundantly used across different estimations without user awareness, and the non-IID problem in federated learning, where the non-identically distributed nature of data across clients can severely hamper the model’s performance.

To address these challenges, this dissertation explores the intersection of data fusion, federated learning, and Bayesian methods, with a focus on applied problems in indoor localization, satellite-based navigation, and image processing that spans both theoretical analysis and practical application. In the realm of data fusion, we delve into the Bayesian framework to offer a solution that not only facilitates the optimal integration of sensor data with prior knowledge but also navigates the intricacies of feature fusion effectively. This approach mitigates the multiple counting issue by ensuring that the fusion of local estimates accounts for the overuse of prior knowledge. In tackling the problems inherent to federated learning, particularly the non-IID issue, we introduce novel frameworks and algorithms designed to enhance model training and performance in a privacy-preserving manner. We explore personalized and clustered federated learning as methods to customize the learning process to individual client characteristics and to group clients with similar data traits, respectively. A number of practical problems are explored using those federated methodologies, including indoor fingerprinting, jamming interference classification, or image classification tasks. Noticeably, this thesis proposes a novel Bayesian clustered federated learning framework that generalizes existing clustered federated learning schemes by leveraging Bayesian data association modeling. By implementing a Bayesian perspective within these frameworks, the dissertation proposes practical algorithms that achieve a balance between performance and computational efficiency, ultimately advancing the application of distributed data fusion and federated learning in privacy-sensitive fields.