The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Dean’s Research Staff Awards honor outstanding contributions by research staff working in research laboratories. In 2025, the inaugural year of the awards, the award recipients were selected by a subcommittee of the Basic Sciences Strategic Leadership Committee. Four awards were given out to research staff within the School of Medicine and Public Health.
About her research: Christine Sorenson’s laboratory studies the apoptotic and non-apoptotic roles Bcl-2 family members play during developmental and pathologic vascularization, particularly in the eye. Her lab uses transgenic mouse models for preclinical studies representing many human eye diseases. The Sorenson Research Group has a major interest in the interplay between macrophages and vascular cells associated with neovascularization and their influence on tissue remodeling and scar formation. Sorenson’s research goal is to better address ocular diseases with pathologic neovascularization, not only by delineating novel treatment modalities, but also to predicate which patients will have the most appropriate response to treatment.