Scheie Eye Institute

We are proud to be highlighting some of the innovative researchers at our partner health organizations and the paths that led them to a career in science. Dr. Qi Cui spent many nights in the earliest years of her life sleeping in a medical school office. Born and raised in China until the age of ten, Dr. Cui was the daughter of a physician educator at Peking Union Medical College in Beijing and spent weeknights sleeping at the College with her mother because it was too far to travel from their home during the week. Her mother’s career in science inspired Dr. Cui to pursue one of her own, achieving a M.D. PhD. followed by clinical training in ophthalmology that would allow her to explore research while also treating patients and performing surgery. Now, Dr. Cui calls a new University her home – the Scheie Eye Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Cui studies the mechanisms by which glaucomatous optic neuropathy, the leading cause of insidious vision-loss worldwide, develops. Most recently, Dr. Cui has been studying the connection between a drug class commonly used for Type 2 Diabetes, GLP-1 receptor agonists, and glaucoma. In pre-clinical and retrospective studies with both animals and humans, Dr. Cui and her team demonstrated that these drugs reduce neuroinflammation to promote retinal and optic nerve protection. This drug class already has a positive safety profile due to its widespread use for Type 2 Diabetes and weight loss, which means that the treatment may be easily transitioned from a clinical setting to a patient care setting. In addition, while glaucoma is often associated with increased tension in the eye placing strain on the optic nerve, decreasing tension in the eye does not always stop glaucoma in its tracks. GLP-1 receptor agonists, however, do not rely on tension lowering to protect the retina and the optic nerve, and therefore augment the effects of existing glaucoma therapy. Dr. Cui recognizes how vision loss resulting from glaucoma can seriously hinder patients’ quality-of-life and is dedicated to improving and finding new treatments for this disease. Her role as an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the Scheie Eye Institute allows her to perform cutting-edge research and translate the outcomes of her research to the clinical realm by treating patients and performing surgery. Just as Dr. Cui was inspired by her mother to explore medical research, the medical students who work in Dr. Cui’s lab will be equipped with the skills necessary to become the next generation of innovative physician-scientists. Learn more about the work of Dr. Cui and the Scheie Eye Institute: https://lnkd.in/ejA7Y9xt

I have the great pleasure of going on some pretty cool site visits, but stepping into the labs of the Scheie Eye Institute had to be one of the most eye-opening (sorry, had to do it!) visits I have had. The clinicians and researchers working within this department are doing incredible work to better understand vision, eye degeneration, and the relationship between the eye and the brain. Click below to learn more about Dr. Qi Cui and her journey from Beijing to Scheie. https://lnkd.in/ejA7Y9xt