Peter Brown, a second-year medical student at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, was recently awarded the Members-in-Training (MIT) Outstanding Poster Award at the 2025 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) conference. Among more than 11,000 scientists, Peter shared his recent efforts in the neuroscience vision lab of Drs. Royce Mohan and Paola Bargagna-Mohan towards finding a readily deployable treatment to combat ocular injury from chemical warfare agents and related toxins. Rather than developing entirely new drugs, this study seeks to uncover if any drugs already approved by the FDA—whose safety, side effects, and mechanism of action are known—can simultaneously block corneal nerve injury and fibrosis to prevent sensory dysfunction and vision loss. At its core, this approach saves years (even decades) of time and possibly a billion USD by avoiding the extensive process of developing a new drug and instead evaluating if any existing drugs may be repurposed for preventing wartime ocular injury. The Mohan lab is appreciative that mentees like Peter, who merit this international recognition, will continue to define paths for applied medical research in homeland security and national defense initiatives. The Mohan lab is funded by a CounterACT NIH grant R21EY035976 for this project.
