January 2021 Newsletter
Dear Colleagues, Alumni, and Friends,

I wish you all a happy new year. Below, please take the time to explore our 2020 Annual Report. The report highlights our latest innovations in clinical care, education, and research, as well as stories of grateful patients, interviews with alumni, and a feature on our residents' response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stay safe and healthy. We will get through this together.
 
Sincerely,

J. Martin Heur, MD, PhD

Professor and Interim Chair
Charles C. Manger III, M.D. Chair in Corneal Laser Surgery
USC Department of Ophthalmology
Keck Medicine of USC
2020 Annual Report
Explore our latest innovations from the USC Roski Eye Institute

FELLOWSHIP MATCH RESULTS
We are excited to announce what our senior residents will be doing after graduation. We continue our tradition of placing our residents in elite fellowships around the country:

  • Charles DeBoer, MD, PhD, will begin a surgical retina fellowship at Stanford.
  • William Gange, MD, will begin a surgical retina fellowship at Colorado.
  • Hong-Uyen Hua, MD, will begin a surgical retina fellowship at Cleveland Clinic.
  • Nicole Koulisis, MD, will begin a surgical retina fellowship at the USC Roski Eye Institute.
  • Diana Lee, MD, will begin a surgical retina fellowship at Associates in Ophthalmology.
  • Jonathan Lu, MD, will begin an oculoplastics fellowship at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
  • Maggie Runner, MD, will begin a surgical retina fellowship at Beaumont.

Awards and Grants
Grace Richter, MD, MPH, was voted a Top Doctor of 2021 by the Los Angeles Business Journal
Award Date: January 18, 2021 

Brandon Wong, MD, received the Mentoring for the Advancement of Physician Scientists (MAPS) from the American Glaucoma Society (AGS)
Project Title: Development of an Integrated Teleglaucoma Care Program for a Safety-Net Health System
Award Date: November 30, 2020 

Benjamin Xu, MD, PhD, received the 2021-2022 IRIS Registry Initiative Award from the American Glaucoma Society
Award Date: January 1, 2020

In the News
Yahoo Health interviewed Brian Toy, MD, debunking an actress's claim that she got an eye infection as a result of COVID tests. The story was also picked up by USA Today.


Faculty Publications
Since December 15, 2020 our faculty have published 35 papers. Eligible publications included those that were e-published in late December and January:

Faculty Publications:

1.   Jesse Berry, MD, co-authored the paper, “A systematic review of ultrasound biomicroscopy use in pediatric ophthalmology” in Eye (London).

2.   Jesse Berry, MD, and Jonathan Kim, MD, co-authored the paper, “Intravitreal melphalan for retinoblastoma: The impact of toxicity on recurrence and ultimate globe salvage” in Ocular Oncology and Pathology.

3.   David Cobrinik, MD, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Extracellular vesicle-associated repetitive element DNAs candidate osteosarcoma biomarkers” in Scientific Reports.

4.   David Cobrinik, MD, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Reciprocal induction of mdm2 and mycn in neural and neuroendocrine cancers” in Frontiers of Oncology.

5.   Maria Edman, PhD; J. Andrew MacKay, PhD; and Sarah Hamm-Alvarez, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Intralacrimal sustained delivery of rapamycin shows therapeutic effects without systemic toxicity in a mouse model of autoimmune dacryoadenitis characteristic of sjögren's syndrome” in Biomacromolecules.

6.   Mark Humayun, MD, PhD; Biju Thomas, PhD; and Qifa Zhou, co-authored the paper, “Transcranial focused ultrasound for noninvasive neuromodulation of the visual cortex” in IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control.

7.   Mark Humayun, MD, PhD, and Qifa Zhou, co-authored the paper, “Ultrasonic elastography to assess biomechanical properties of the optic nerve head and peripapillary sclera of the eye” in Ultrasonics.

8.   Shinwu Jeong, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Therapeutic potential of the molecular chaperone and matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor clusterin for dry eye” in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

9.   Jonathan Kim, MD; David Cobrinik, MD, PhD; and Jesse Berry, MD, co-authored the paper, “Simultaneous identification of clinically relevant rb1 mutations and copy number alterations in aqueous humor of retinoblastoma eyes” in Ophthalmic Genetics.

10. Jonathan Kim, MD; Thomas Lee, MD; and Sudha Nallasamy, MD, co-authored the paper, "Feasibility of Asynchronous Video-based Telemedicine in the Diagnosis and Management of Paediatric Blepharoptosis" in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare.

11. Andrew Moshfeghi, MD, MBA, co-authored the paper, "Increase, Incidence and Prevalence of Common Retinal Diseases in Retina Practices Across the United States" in Ophthalmic Surgery, Lasers & Imaging Retina.

12. Narsing Rao, MD, co-authored the paper, “A framework and proposal for a classification system” in Survey of Ophthalmology.

13. Paul Thompson, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Estrogen, brain structure, and cognition in postmenopausal women” in Human Brain Mapping.

14. Paul Thompson, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Association of immunosuppression and viral load with subcortical brain volume in an international sample of people living with HIV” in JAMA Network Open.

15. Paul Thompson, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Virtual histology of cortical thickness and shared neurobiology in 6 psychiatric disorders” in JAMA Psychiatry.

16. Paul Thompson, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Structural brain imaging studies offer clues about the effects of the shared genetic etiology among neuropsychiatric disorders” in Molecular Psychiatry.

17. Paul Thompson, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Freesurfer-based segmentation of hippocampal subfields: A review of methods and applications, with a novel quality control procedure for enigma studies and other collaborative efforts” in Human Brain Mapping.

18. Paul Thompson, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Coordinating global multi-site studies of military-relevant traumatic brain injury: Opportunities, challenges, and harmonization guidelines" in Human Brain Behavior.

19. Arthur Toga, PhD, co-authored the paper, “The connections of the insular ven area in great apes: A histologically-guided ex vivo diffusion tractography study” in Progress in Neurobiology.

20. Arthur Toga, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Retrospective motion artifact correction of structural MRI images using deep learning improves the quality of cortical surface reconstructions” in Neuroimage.

21. Arthur Toga, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Volumetric distribution of perivascular space in relation to mild cognitive impairment” in Neurobiology of Aging.

22. Kristina Voss, MD; Annie Nguyen, MD; and J. Martin Heur, MD, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Non-infectious and non-hereditary diseases of the corneal epithelium” in Experimental Eye Research.

23. Benjamin Xu, MD, PhD, and Brandon Wong, MD, co-authored the paper, “A randomized controlled trial comparing subconjunctival injection to direct scleral application of mitomycin c in trabeculectomy” in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

24. Benjamin Xu, MD, PhD; Xuejuan Jiang, PhD; and Grace Richter, MD, MPH, co-authored the paper, “Ocular biometric determinants of anterior chamber angle width in Chinese Americans: The Chinese American eye study” in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

25. Sandy Zhang-Nunes, MD; Jessica Chang, MD; Annie Nguyen, MD, co-authored the paper, “Safety and efficacy of an augmented intense pulse light protocol for dry eye syndrome and blepharitis” in Photobiomodulation, Photomedicine, and Laser Surgery.


Affiliate Faculty Publications:

1.   Young-Kwon Hong, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Tetracyclines improve experimental lymphatic filariasis pathology by disrupting interleukin-4 receptor-mediated lymphangiogenesis” in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

2.   Young-Kwon Hong, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Aqueous humour outflow imaging: Seeing is believing” in Eye (London).

3.   J. Andrew MacKay, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Live long and active: Polypeptide-mediated assembly of antibody variable fragments” in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews.

4.   J. Andrew MacKay, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Adaptable antibody nanoworms designed for non-hodgkin lymphoma” in Biomaterials.

5.   Roberta McKean-Cowdin, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Trans-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of prostate cancer identifies new susceptibility loci and informs genetic risk prediction” in Nature Genetics.

6.   Roberta McKean-Cowdin, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Factors associated with prevalent lens opacities in Chinese American adults: The Chinese American eye study,” in Ophthalmic Epidemiology.

7.   Roberta McKean-Cowdin, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Parental occupation and risk of childhood retinoblastoma in Denmark” in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

8.   Yonggang Shi, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Retrospective motion artifact correction of structural mri images using deep learning improves the quality of cortical surface reconstructions” in Neuroimage.

9.   Yonggang Shi, PhD, co-authored the paper, “Safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of allopregnanolone as a regenerative therapeutic for alzheimer's disease: A single and multiple ascending dose phase 1b/2a clinical trial” in Alzheimer’s & Dementia (N.Y.).

10. Yonggang Shi, PhD; and John Ringman, MD, MS, co-authored the paper, “Past, present and future role of retinal imaging in neurodegenerative disease” in Progress in Retinal and Eye Research.