WVU vision researcher awarded Knights Templar Eye Foundation grant for research into early-onset blindness

Representatives from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation (KTEF) recently visited the West Virginia University Health Sciences Campus to formally present researcher Souradip Chatterjee, Ph.D. with a KTEF Career-Starter Research Grant for research into early-onset blindness in pediatric patients.

Dr. Chatterjee is a post-doctoral researcher in the lab of Visvanathan Ramamurthy, Ph.D., in the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine and Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. He was awarded a $90,000 grant from the KTEF for research examining how a process known as glutamylation can result in irreversible blindness.

“I am extremely grateful to the Knights Templar Eye Foundation for their invaluable support, which empowers young researchers like me to pursue a passion for innovative research that can translate into developing potential therapies to fight blindness,” Chatterjee said.

Chatterjee explained that glutamylation is a highly regulated process that involves adding glutamate amino acids to specific proteins. He added that glutamylation can contribute to photoreceptor degeneration, which can then lead to irreversible blindness in pediatric patients.

To gain deeper insights, Chatterjee and his team are developing a conditional knockout mouse model that replicates human blindness caused by impaired glutamylation. He explained that by studying this model, they aim to uncover the molecular basis of this vision loss and explore potential therapeutic strategies.

“The funds from KTEF have played a crucial role in establishing the careers of several researchers at WVU,” Dr. Ramamurthy said. “The support from KTEF arrives at a critical time during fellowship years. Such funding during formative years is a powerful motivator for young scientists like Dr. Chatterjee. We are grateful to KTEF and the Knights Templar for their continued support of vision research at West Virginia University.”

To learn more about vision research at the School of Medicine, visit medicine.hsc.wvu.edu/eye/research/vision-research.