Jeffrey Mumm, PhD, the Helen Larson and Charles Glenn Grover Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute, likens his research into new therapies for macular degeneration to engineering. He approaches the problem from several different angles in order to find an avenue that might work. It’s a process of trial and error that can take up a lot of time and resources.
“In many ways, science is designed to teach you by a series of failures,” Mumm says. “And so, by its very nature, it can be expensive to fund.”
As a 2017 recipient of a grant from the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund (MEIF), Mumm can now focus on his research without the constant distraction of cost. MEIF offers funds from the state of Maryland to match private funds raised in support of endowed chairs at higher education institutions to further basic and applied research.
In Mumm’s case, the state matched funds from the estate of Helen Larson and Charles Glenn Grover to support basic science research into macular degeneration. Macular degeneration attacks two major cell types in the retina, which leads to vision loss. In his research, Mumm uses a custom-designed robotic system to screen living disease models, like fish and worms, for potentially therapeutic compounds that could protect and potentially regenerate these lost cells.
“We can test drugs across things like flies, small fish, frog eggs, and even human stem cell-derived tissue that you can think of as a retina in a dish,” Mumm says.
MEIF supports 14 Johns Hopkins research projects, including four researchers at Wilmer. One of these recipients, Akrit Sodhi, MD, PhD, the Branna and Irving Sisenwein Professor of Ophthalmology at Wilmer, is looking for new therapies to prevent the growth of leaky blood vessels in wet macular degeneration. These blood vessels leak fluid or bleed underneath or within the retina, leading to vision loss.
“Our lab is looking at novel therapies to target the proteins that turn on the growth of these blood vessels,” Sodhi says. “We’ve screened different molecules that potentially could block these proteins. One in particular we’re excited about has shown great promise.”
According to Sodhi, most grant agencies, like the National Institutes of Health as well as foundations, require preliminary data to demonstrate that research is feasible before they’ll award grants. Generating that initial data can be difficult to do without sufficient funding.
“Philanthropy and matching state funds allow us to pursue these projects at an earlier stage to provide the evidence that they are viable projects that eventually grant agencies would like to fund,” Sodhi says.
Laura Ensign, Engr ’12 (PhD), the Vice Chair for Research and the Marcella E. Woll Professor of Ophthalmology at Wilmer, received a MEIF grant in 2018. She works on eye drop and injectable drug delivery systems that utilize nanoparticles and other biomaterials to treat a variety of diseases, including age-related macular degeneration.
“These therapeutic systems will deliver drugs in a sustained fashion,” Ensign says. “The goal is to both reduce the frequency of administration and direct more of the therapeutic to where it needs to be, reducing side effects.”
Ensign says that philanthropy and funds from MEIF help put her in a better position to bring her research findings from the lab to patients.
“We’re trying to take everything we’re doing at the lab bench and have a positive impact on patient care,” Ensign says. “So, by having protected time and support to really be focusing on these translational activities is really helpful and unique.”
According to Mumm, this more flexible source of funding also allows researchers to pursue bold new ideas that risk-averse funding sources would shy away from. It’s a sentiment echoed by a 2023 MEIF grant recipient, S. Amer Riazuddin, BSPH ’03 (PhD), Boone Pickens Professor of Ophthalmology at Wilmer.
“This additional funding helps me take bold steps,” Riazuddin says. “I can think outside the box and plan experiments that I could not have planned before.”
Riazuddin is using the funds from the endowed chair to support the research to validate stem cell-derived corneal endothelial cells as an alternative to donor tissue for the treatment of corneal endothelial dysfunction. Additionally, he is using the funds for two research initiatives, initiated previously but which have been accelerated with MEIF support. First, the development of a non-surgical treatment of cataracts by perturbing lens cell pathways, and second, stem cell-based regeneration of the glaucomatous tissue as a possible treatment of glaucoma.
“These audacious initiatives need sustained grant support to come to fruition, the outcome of which will benefit millions around the globe and generations to come,” Riazuddin says.
Topics: Alumni, Faculty and Staff, Wilmer Eye Institute, Fuel Discovery, Johns Hopkins Medicine