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Expanding the Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

The Institute’s initiatives for equity, diversity, and inclusion are creating new programs that address how EDI can be more integral to every level of the Institute’s work. Read more about it here >>

In addition to being on the cusp of new discovery, Stein Eye Institute laboratories also serve as a petri dish of a sort in fostering development of future leaders in medicine. Read more about it >> 

Recent Publication: “Age at Glaucoma Diagnosis in Germline Myocilin Mutation Patients: Associations with Polymorphisms in Protein Stabilities” in Genes, November 16, 2021

While conducting research as undergraduate students at the Zheng Laboratory at UCLA, Tarin Tanji, Emily Cohen, and Darrick Shen studied the correlation between mutations in the myocilin gene and the age at which glaucoma is diagnosed. Previous studies have suggested that the mutated myocilin gene may lead to an increased risk of developing glaucoma, an eye disease that induces permanent blindness. Their recently published paper “Age at Glaucoma Diagnosis in Germline Myocilin Mutation Patients: Associations with Polymorphisms in Protein Stabilities” specifically examines the melting temperatures of 20 different myocilin mutants and their relationship to the age of the patient at the time of their diagnosis, suggesting that the gene mutations are not a reliable predictor of age at diagnosis but may be beneficial for recognition of the onset of the disease in conjunction with other factors. https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/11/1802

Undergraduate Student Research Awards:

• 2020, Su Bin Yoon, Dean’s Life Science Award Final List

• 2019, Kim Graybeal, Dean’s Life Science Award

• 2018, Emily Cohen, Dean’s Life Science Award Final List