Department News
Komarek-Hyde-McQueen Foundation supports glaucoma research
A $250,000 pledge from the Komarek-Hyde-McQueen Foundation will provide support for the Department’s outstanding research in glaucoma. Mrs. Patricia Hyde, a grateful patient of Dr. Mark Lunde, made the gift in appreciation of Dr. Lunde’s care for both herself and her late husband, The Honorable Louis Hyde, who served as a judge on the Circuit Court of Cook County.
The pledge supports the Glaucoma Research Fund in Honor of Dr. Mark W. Lunde. Dr. Lunde is a Clinical Assistant Professor who oversees the resident rotation at the Jesse Brown VA Hospital.
The foundation is named for Mrs. Hyde, her brother Michael McQueen, who also has been treated for a pre-glaucomatous condition, and their aunt, the late Helen Komarek. Mrs. Komarek, passed away in 1999. “Our aunt felt strongly about doing good, and we established the foundation in her memory as a way to carry out her generosity,” Mrs. Hyde stated. She explained that she and her brother chose to honor Dr. Lunde because of the knowledgeable and compassionate care he has given their family, adding that her husband and Dr. Lunde had been good friends over many years. “They hunted together and enjoyed one another’s company immensely,” she said.
In the first year of the pledge, the Komarek-Hyde-McQueen Foundation Glaucoma Research Fund in Honor of Dr. Mark W. Lunde has supported three research projects.
Mahnaz Shahidi, PhD, Professor and Director of the Applied Physics Laboratory and Thasarat Vajaranant, MD, Assistant Professor and member of the Glaucoma Service both are working to improve diagnosis and management of glaucoma in order to save the vision of these patients. Dr. Shahidi’s project, A Novel Technique for Detection of Glaucomatous Damage to Retinal Cell Layers, tested an imaging technique developed in her laboratory to measure changes in retinal cell layers prior to the onset of vision loss in patients at risk for glaucoma, as well as monitor disease progression more accurately. Dr. Vajaranant examined an alternative to visual field testing for monitoring the progression of glaucoma in her project, Improved Glaucoma Monitoring with Integrated Structural and Functional Mapping. Both projects found that analyses of retinal cell layers provided useful data in monitoring the progression of advanced glaucoma. Dr. Shahidi’s findings are now in manuscript and will be submitted for publication. Dr. Vajaranant’s findings were presented at the May 2009 meeting of the leading society in vision research, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
Beatrice Yue, PhD, Professor and Director of the Ocular Cell Biology Laboratory is conducting gene silencing experiments on a glaucoma gene called optineuron to help elucidate its role in development of glaucoma. The findings from this project, Molecular and Cellular Studies of Optineurin – a Glaucoma Gene, are reported in the article “Differential Effects of Myocilin and Optineurin, Two Glaucoma Genes, on Neurite Outgrowth.”
Department Head Dr. Dimitri Azar thanked Mrs. Hyde and Mr. McQueen for their generous support. “The Komarek-Hyde-McQueen Foundation has chosen to honor one of our most respected ophthalmologists, Dr. Mark Lunde, with a gift that will advance our understanding of what causes glaucoma, open new avenues for research on how to prevent it, and improve the monitoring of glaucoma patients to ensure that as much vision as possible is saved. I can think of no greater way to honor a clinician as dedicated to caring for his patients as Mark Lunde.”