Indo-US Vision Research Collaboration Educational Workshop

Registration is required. To register, please send an email to both gyan.prakash@nih.gov and vinita.chaudhary@nic.in

 

Workshop Chairs:

Dr. Gyan Prakash, National Eye Institute-NIH, USA
Dr. Sundeep Sarin, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India

Summary:

The NEI-DBT educational workshop-2022 will focus on the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number PAR-21-249, how Indo-US investigators can write grants, and how grant applications are reviewed. 

Scientific collaborations in vision research between the U.S. and India have been successfully conducted for more than a decade under a US-India Vision Research Collaboration signed in 2005.  Recognizing that continuing collaborative research focused on eye diseases and visual disorders would be of mutual benefit to the U.S. and India, the National Eye Institute (NEI), the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT), developed a strategic plan for collaborations and to facilitate the expedited review and clearance of bilateral projects.

Both the NEI and the DBT have pledged funds to support joint activities pursued under this bilateral program for meritorious projects that are selected by peer review process at NIH and DBT. Several eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, AMD, and glaucoma are complex and influenced by multiple genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors including family, nutrition, and exposure to toxins.  During the past decade, a dozen programs have been successfully established making progress in understanding of many eye diseases and training of a large number of next generation scientists in the US and India. Large scale genomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and informatic methods using emergent or current technologies to study unique populations are encouraged to identify new factors that can affect susceptibility to these diseases and/or ocular infections, as well as biomarkers that will provide the basis for accurate diagnostic tests and predict treatment outcome. The US and India have strong interest in applying new technologies including AI, mobile and telehealth to study eye diseases for developing cost effective solutions. There are also many eye conditions and complications such as inflammation that affect some intracommunity populations to a much greater extent, providing a valuable resource for learning more about visual restoration as well as the pathogenesis and physiology of a disorder. For instance, the impact of environmental pollutants on the development of cataracts, as well as the susceptibility of toxins to cause infections, such as ocular TB and trachoma, are not well understood.  Research on these populations that will further our understanding of neural plasticity including neurogenesis, cognition, and processing after the treatment of visual disorders and injury are also of interest to NEI and the DBT.

Program:

Welcome (10 minutes)
Dr. Michael Chiang-Director, NEI &  Dr. Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary, DBT

Overview of the Indo-US Vison Research Collaborations and Program Areas of Interest (10 minutes)
Dr. Gyan Prakash, NIH-NEI, USA & Dr. Sundeep Sarin, DBT, India

NIH - NEI Grant Opportunities, FOA Number PAR-21-249 & Application Process (20 minutes)
Dr. Lisa Neuhold and Dr. Michael Steinmetz, NIH-NEI, USA

NIH-NEI Grant Review Process (20 minutes)
Dr. Seetha Bhagavan, NIH-CSR

DBT Application Process and Review (10 minutes)
Dr. Vinita Chaudhary, DBT

Discussion / Q&A (20 minutes)

Moving forward with the Indo-US Vision Research Collaboration-Closing Remarks (5 minutes)
Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, Health Attaché at the US Embassy in India

Accommodations

To request reasonable accommodations to participate in this event, contact gyan.prakash@NIH.gov at least 48 hours prior to the event.