OU Undergrad Erin Feeney Wins Sigma Xi Award

Recently ten OU students attended the 2014 Sigma Xi Student Research Conference in Glendale, Arizona. Undergraduate Erin Feeney won a medal at the conference for a top presentation in the category of Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Physiology and Immunology. Feeney, from Lake Orion Michigan, is a biology major and a member of the honors college. She participated in the Summer Undergraduate Program in Eye Research (SUPER) in the Eye Research Institute this summer, working with Clinical Associate Kimberly Drenser and CBR member Ken Mitton to study the impact of the protein norrin on the structural integrity of the ischemic retina. This work, performed in collaboration with 2012 SUPER student Kevin Roumayah, has implications for a disease of the eye affecting prematurely-born babies called Retinopathy of Prematurity. This research was performed in the Virginia and Clarence Clohset Pediatric Retinal Research Laboratory, a lab in the ERI devoted to pediatric retinal research and supported by the Vision Research ROPARD Foundation.

Feeney's work continues the legacy of the ERI’s first director V. Everett Kinsey, who received the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research for his work on Retinopathy of Prematurity. Below is a photo of Feeney with her medallion award in the ERI standing next to Kinsey’s Lasker award.