UNC Ophthalmology congratulates Research Assistant Professor Jackie Bower, PhD, for being named one of 10 scientists worldwide to the inaugural class of Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (OHC) Scholar Award recipients. The OHC is a trans-Atlantic partnership between University of Oxford (Oxford, UK) and the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals (Cleveland, Ohio). The Centre brings together world-leading researchers, therapeutics development experts and industry backers to advance toward market breakthrough therapeutic solutions for treating neurologic, oncologic, and metabolic disease and rare/ultra-rare diseases.
Dr. Bower is an established leader of large-scale sponsored studies to identify and develop therapeutic approaches to treating uveal melanoma. Her area of translational research focus is studying ocular tumorigenesis mechanisms and DNA-damage related causes of ocular pathogenesis. The OHC awards each Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (OHC) scholar $100K to support therapeutics-driven rare disease projects in their area of expertise. Dr. Bower will apply her OHC award funding to support her lab’s study entitled: “Novel viral gene therapy to treat lethal rare eye tumors.” This study advances the aims of her lab’s investigative work in developing therapeutic solutions to treat uveal melanoma.
Dr. Bower noted: “Most cancers are unsuitable for a traditional gene therapy-based treatment approach, but uveal melanoma is somewhat of a genetic anomaly in that respect. About 90% harbor a single mutation that is required for tumor cell survival. My team’s approach is based on using a non-pathogenic virus [adeno-associated virus, AAV] to inhibit the function of that survival protein, presenting a unique opportunity to use gene therapy for a rare tumor type.”
To read the Oxford-Harrington Centre news announcement on the selection of the Inaugural 2024 Rare Disease Scholar Award class, click HERE.