Grad student Megan Allyn earns first place in research symposium

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Megan Allyn and Dr. Thomas Mendel
Research Judge Dr. Thomas Mendel and Megan Allyn 

Megan Allyn, a doctoral student in the laboratories of Katelyn Swindle-Reilly and Andre Palmer, won first place in the 42nd Annual Ophthalmology Research Symposium. The Symposium, sponsored by The Ohio State University Havener Eye Institute, was held June 17, 2022.

Allyn's research assesses novel therapeutic interventions for age-related macular degeneration including new therapeutics and extended release systems. Her research project for this competition was titled "Sustained Release of Heme-Albumin as Novel Therapeutic Approach for Age-Related Macular Degeneration."

Last year, Allyn received the 2021 Prevent Blindness Research Fellowship Award from the Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindess.  Megan's proposal was selected for the Young Investigator Student Fellowship Award for Female Scholars in Vision Research. This award provides training support for future generations of outstanding female scientists committed to pursuing biomedical, behavioral or clinical research careers relevant to the mission of Prevent Blindness.

The Havener Eye Institute's 42nd Annual Ophthalmology Research Symposium presented a total of five awards. Three awards went to ophthalmology residents at the Havener Eye Institute, and two awards were given to graduate students whose research focus is ophthalmology.

The second-place winner among graduate students was doctoral student Annie Ryan from the Matthew Reilly laboratory in Biomedical Engineering. Ryan's research topic was "Diagnostic Electrophysiology in a Small Animal Model of Traumatic Optic Neuropathy (TON)."

Megan Allyn (right), Annie Ryan (2nd from left)
Megan Allyn (right), Annie Ryan (2nd from left). Also pictured are Dr. Jun Liu (BME) students Sunny Kwok (far left) and Macky Pan.