Moran Eye Center doctor receives award

SALT LAKE CITY — A researcher at the John A. Moran Eye Center has been selected as one of 10 winners of an award by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Yingbin Fu, a Moran researcher and assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual science at the University of Utah, is one of 10 winners of the Audacious Goals Challenge, a nationwide competition for compelling ideas to advance vision and science.

Fu’s “audacious” goal — Precise Gene Editing In Vivo — aims to permanently correct disease-associated mutations in a patient through the use of molecules specially designed to target mutated DNA sequences that can be delivered safely and efficiently into the eye, which would lead to an enormous step in the prevention and cure of human ocular diseases.

The challenge is part of a government-wide effort to bring the best ideas and top talent to bear on our nation’s most pressing challenges.