Four students with the UAB School of Optometry Vision Science Graduate Program are recipients of travel grants for the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).

Jessica Jasien, Shyam Panthi, Christopher Starr and Daniel Turner each received grants to support their travel to the meeting, where they will present their research findings. The meeting takes place May 7-11 in Baltimore, Maryland, and travel grants are awarded to investigators whose findings are considered to be of high interest to the vision and ophthalmology research community.

The grants are funded by ARVO, the National Eye Institute, other organizations and corporations, as well as through contributions to the ARVO Foundation for Eye and Vision Research.

Jasien is a National Eye Institute Travel Grant recipient and will present her research, “IOP Asymmetry in Nonhuman Primates Measured with Continuous Telemetry.”

Panthi is an ARVO Foundation Domestic Travel Grant recipient, and his research is titled, “Secretory phospholipase A2-IIA activity and concentration in human tears and correlation with the ocular surface disease index scores.”

Starr is the recipient of the Retina Research Foundation/Joseph M. and Eula C. Lawrence Travel Grant. His research is titled, “Chronic activation of the unfolded protein response attenuates protein synthesis in the retinas of rd16 mice.”

Turner received a National Eye Institute Travel Grant and will present his research, “The Relationship Between Ocular Pulse Amplitude and Arterial Pulse Pressure.”

The four students are among 10 altogether in the Vision Science Graduate Program who will present their research at this year’s conference. Others attending to present include:

Anna Ablamowicz, O.D., will present her research, “A Galectin-3-Based Slot Blot Affinity Assay for MUC16”

Stephanie Cox, O.D., will present her research, “Activation of the brain in normal subjects in response to an ocular surface stimulus.”

Katie Bales will present her research, “Congenital knock-out of transition zone protein BBS5 reveals cone-rod dystrophy with protein mislocalization.”

Terin Dupre will present “Relationship of silicon and fluorine contents with water content of silicone-hydrogel contact lens materials.”

Cameron Postnikoff will present his research, “Variation of the leukocyte composition in the open eye of normal and dry eye subjects.”

Delores Stacks will present “ERG Analysis of the Murine GARP2 Knockout: Abnormal Retinal Function.”

ARVO is the largest organization for eye and vision research in the world. Each year, more than 11,000 top eye and vision researchers and clinicians from more than 75 countries to explore cutting-edge basic and clinical science.