Focus on Fellows: Celebrating NEI's Research Trainees

The National Eye Institute (NEI) hosted its annual Focus on Fellows retreat on October 17-18, 2024, bringing together NEI trainees-graduate students, postbaccalaureate fellows, and postdoctoral researchers-to enhance collaboration, foster career growth, and practice presenting research.

From left to right, NEI trainees Samuel Ramirez, Kyle Schwab, and Dominik Reichert, winners of the 2024 Focus on Fellows. Credit: National Eye Institute.

"We see the fellows as part of a big family, reflecting the collaborative and supportive environment that NEI aims to foster. Through events like this, NEI continues to empower its trainees, helping them make meaningful contributions to vision research while building strong professional networks," said NEI training director, Dr. Cesar Perez-Gonzalez.

This year's event featured a poster contest and three- and ten-minute talk competitions.

Dominik Reichert, a graduate student in the NEI Ocular and Stem Cell Translational Research Section, won top honors for his poster on retinal degeneration. As a winner, he earns a spot in the annual NIH 3-Minute Talk Competition.

The Long Journey of Retinal Connectivity - winning image at the 2024 Focus on Fellows. Credit: Francisco Nadal-Nicolas, Ph.D.

Samuel Ramirez, postbaccalaureate fellow, NEI Ocular and Stem Cell Translation Section, won the three-minute talk competition describing work on a stem cell-derived retinal disease model. Kyle Schwab, a graduate student in the Ocular Gene Therapy Core, won for his 10-minute talk about the development of a bioreactor for growing retinal organoids.

Dr. Francisco Nadal-Nicolas, Retinal Neurophysiology Section, won the image contest for "The Long Journey of Retinal Connectivity." The image of ND6-tdt mouse retinal cells will be featured on the cover of next year's Focus on Fellows program.

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