Henok Getahun Awarded Prestigious RPB Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship
ST. LOUIS, MO – December 4, 2024 — Henok Getahun, WashU Medicine Medical Student, has been honored with the RPB Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship, a distinguished award that supports promising medical students in pursuing innovative research projects in ophthalmology.
Getahun’s groundbreaking research focuses on a critical intersection of Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease. While most adults with Down syndrome develop signs of Alzheimer’s disease by the age of 40, diagnosing the condition can be challenging due to the confounding effects of intellectual disability. Leveraging cutting-edge diagnostic advancements such as PET imaging, CSF biomarkers, and plasma biomarkers, Getahun’s project aims to explore novel retinal changes associated with both conditions.
Using advanced retinal imaging techniques, including optical coherence tomography (OCT), OCT-angiography, and Dark Adaptation testing, Getahun’s research seeks to identify potential retinal biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease in individuals with Down syndrome. If successful, this approach could revolutionize diagnostic methods by offering a quick, cost-effective, and non-invasive alternative that improves patient care and expands access to early diagnosis.
The RPB Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship provides gifted allopathic and osteopathic medical students with an opportunity to dedicate a year exclusively to research in an RPB-supported department of ophthalmology. Through this fellowship, students like Getahun can drive innovation and contribute to advancing our understanding of eye diseases and related conditions.
Henok Getahun is a medical student in Dr. Rajendra Apte’s Lab at WashU Medicine.
About WashU Medicine
WashU Medicine is a global leader in academic medicine, including biomedical research, patient care and educational programs with 2,900 faculty. Its National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding portfolio is the second largest among U.S. medical schools and has grown 56% in the last seven years. Together with institutional investment, WashU Medicine commits well over $1 billion annually to basic and clinical research innovation and training. Its faculty practice is consistently within the top five in the country, with more than 1,900 faculty physicians practicing at 130 locations and who are also the medical staffs of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals of BJC HealthCare. WashU Medicine has a storied history in MD/PhD training, recently dedicated $100 million to scholarships and curriculum renewal for its medical students, and is home to top-notch training programs in every medical subspecialty as well as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and audiology and communications sciences.
For more information about Research to Prevent Blindness, the work Dr. Apte or WashU Medicine, please visit: Research to Prevent Blindness | Apte Lab | WashU Medicine