Distinguished Paper Award Recipients
2025 Winners
Jacob Bogost
Medical Student
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: Amitha Domalpally
Kim Edwards
Graduate Student
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, SMPH
Mentor: David Gamm
Paper title:
“Robust generation of photoreceptor-dominant retinal organoids from porcine induced pluripotent stem cells”
Colin Froines
Medical Resident
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: Amitha Domalpally
Jake Khoussine
Medical Student
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: Mrinalini Hoon
Paper title:
“Divergent mechanisms of neural adaptation and instability in the mammalian retina”
Yong-Seok Song
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: Nader Sheibani
Paper title:
“Pericyte Expression of VEGF-A Minimally Impacts Ocular Vascular Development
and Neovascularization”
Ally Spillane
Graduate Student
Department of Pediatrics, SMPH
Mentor: Bikash Pattnaik
Paper title:
“Precision therapeutic tRNA rescue of nonsense mutation R166X in KCNJ13 to restore K+ channel function”
Kushin Mukherjee
Graduate Student
Psychology
Mentor: Timothy Rogers
Paper title:
“Using drawings and deep neural networks to characterize the building blocks of human visual similarity”
Ruosen “Alex” Xie
Postdoctoral researcher
Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Mentor: Shaoqin Gong
Paper title:
“Micromolded honeycomb scaffold design to support the generation of a bilayered RPE and photoreceptor cell construct”
Isabel Iruani Villanueva
Graduate Student
Life Sciences Communication
Mentor: Nan Li
Paper title:
“When Science Meets Art on Instagram: Examining the Effects of Visual Art on Emotions, Interest, and Social Media Engagement”
Meha Kabra
Postdoctoral researcher
Dept. of Pediatrics, SMPH
Mentor: Bikash Pattnaik
Michael Landowski
Postdoctoral researcher
Dept. of Medical Genetics, SMPH
Mentor: Akihiro Ikeda
Paper title:
“Transmembrane protein 135 regulates lipid homeostasis through its role in peroxisomal DHA metabolism”
Allison Ludwig
Graduate Student
Dept. of Comparative Biosciences, SVM; Waisman Center
Mentor: David Gamm
Paper title:
“Re-formation of synaptic connectivity in dissociated human stem cell-derived
retinal organoid cultures”
Kazuya Oikawa
Postdoctoral researcher
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: Gillian J. McLellan
“Aqueous Humor TGF-β2 and its Association with Intraocular Pressure in a
Naturally Occurring Large Animal Model of Glaucoma”
Melissa Schoenlein
Graduate Student
Department of Psychology, L&S
Mentor: Karen Schloss
Paper title:
“Unifying Effects of Direct and Relational Associations for Visual Communication”
Kristina Chern
Graduate Student
Dept. of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy, Medical College of Wisconsin
Mentor: Daniel Lipinski
“Prostaglandin-Based rAAV-Mediated Glaucoma Gene Therapy in Brown Norway Rats”
Ray Doudlah
Graduate Student
Dept. of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Public Health
Mentor: Ari Rosenberg
Paper title:
“Parallel Processing, Hierarchical Transformations, and Sensorimotor Associations Along the ‘Where’ Pathway”
Vishnu Lokhande
Graduate Student
Dept. of Computer Sciences, College of Letters and Sciences
Mentor: Vikas Singh
Paper title:
“Equivariance Allows Handling Multiple Nuisance Variables When Analyzing Pooled Neuroimaging Datasets”
Steven Mayerl
Graduate Student
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: David Gamm
“Human Retinal Organoids Harboring IMPG2 Mutations Exhibit a Photoreceptor Outer Segment Phenotype that Models Advanced Retinitis Pigmentosa”
Philip Myzk
Graduate Student
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: Colleen McDowell
Paper title:
“A20 Attenuates the Fibrotic Response in the Trabecular Meshwork”
Aindrila Saha
Graduate Student
Dept. of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Public Health
Mentor: Raunak Sinha
Paper title:
“Cone Photoreceptors in Human Stem Cell-Derived Retinal Organoids Demonstrate Intrinsic Light Responses that Mimic those of Primate Fovea”