FFS was a Stepping Stone that helped launch my career
“In 2003, I received my first Fight for Sight grant as a postdoctoral student at Baylor College of Medicine. It was my first research award. Thanks to FFS, this funded research led me to an Institutional Training Grant at Baylor College of Medicine, followed by a competitive NEI/NIH F32 award. In 2008, after being appointed as an assistant professor, I received a second FFS grant for work on the effects of aging on the ocular surface and lacrimal gland inflammation in an autoimmune model of Sjögren Syndrome.
Since then, I have received many other awards and published in top tier journals. But my first FFS award was a stepping stone that helped launch my career as an independent eye scientist and one that is very dear to me.” —Cintia de Paiva, MD, PhD, FFS Grant Recipient, 2003, 2008
Who are our past grant awardees?
How do we see a stable visual world in spite of all the movements of our heads and eyes?
“The eyes and retinas within them are our video cameras by which we see the world. Every time we tilt our head, our eyes also rotate within to partially compensate for the head tilt. Our project aims to understand how the brain achieves this remarkable feat of seeing a stable visual world in spite of all the movements of our heads, our eyes and our retinas. We expect to learn what part of the brain is involved in controlling the eyes, controlling our perception, or both. This information will bear on how we diagnose and treat patients whose perceptions are disturbed by disease or after trauma. We are grateful to FFS for its interest in and support of this project.”
–Aubrey Gilbert, MD, PHD, Boston Children’s Hospital, 2015 Post-Doctoral Recipient
What do different populations of cells do?
“I am the principal investigator for a relatively new lab at the University of Pittsburgh that uses genetic tools in mice to identify novel populations of cells and figures out what they do. Prior to our FFS support, there was no funding for this research. We anticipate that FFS’s support will allow us to garner additional data, leading to publication in peer-reviewed journals which will, ultimately, help us to secure further funding from other sources.”
–Sarah Ross, PHD, University of Pittsburgh, 2015 Grant-in-Aid Recipient
Grant Application Information
Learn more about FFS Grants and Awards on our Grants, Research Award Types or Guidelines pages. You may begin your online application on our Grant Applications page.
Applications for the FFS/NANOS award are due September 15th
Applications for the Post-Doctoral and Grants-in-Aid award are due November 15th
Applications for the FFS-Lirot award are due December 31st
Applications for the Summer Student award are due February 15th.
All applications must be completed and submitted online by midnight Eastern Time.
Grant recipients will be announced in the spring. Please watch the website for information about FFS’s 2019 – 2020 grant program.
All material submitted becomes the property of FFS. Late or incomplete applications will not be reviewed.