NIH’s role in advancing Fuchs dystrophy research

I grew up in India then moved to the U.S. in 2002, where I completed all of my higher education. In 2008, my professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Ill. introduced me to the eye research community and I have continued to pursue vision research since!  

My lab studies a common blinding disease of the cornea called Fuchs dystrophy which has no cure and the current treatment is corneal transplantation. Only 1 in 70 patients have access to transplant tissue globally. By studying the disease onset and progression using a newly developed mouse model — the only model that has all the disease features — we hope to develop therapies for patients.

As a PhD researcher, I rarely encounter patients. Therefore, I did not fully comprehend the impact Fuchs dystrophy would have on patients until I met someone living with the disease. I met Bob, a shuttle driver, at a local car service station. While driving me, we chatted about work and he told me his experiences as a Fuchs Dystrophy patient. Bob underwent corneal transplantation twice in one eye because the first transplant failed. He is saving up to get the transplant surgery done on his second eye. He explained how this disease affected his ability to drive and the effect it had on his mental health. Bob requested my cell number and he still texts me often asking about the progress of my research. My encounter with Bob and my continued conversations with him helped me appreciate the broader impact my work has on the community. 

Through funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), my team developed the mouse model for Fuchs dystrophy that has all the disease features. Using this model, we now have plans to investigate the mechanisms that cause the disease onset and progression. The studies we conduct have the potential to develop therapies for the disease. Without the continued support of NIH funding, we will not be able to pursue this work.

In addition to the science, I also employ several people in my lab through my NIH grant. Without federal support to science, I won’t be able to do either.