May 28, 2003
Kellogg Scientist will hold the Harold F. Falls Collegiate Professor of Ophthalmology
 |
Internationally recognized for his research on retinal gene discovery, gene regulation and diseases, Dr. Swaroop also directs a program to identify genes that predispose elderly individuals to AMD, a blinding eye disease that affects 1.65 million people over the age of 60 each year. He has also initiated a new project on diabetic retinopathy, which affects a large number of young adults. Dr. Swaroop’s research programs are supported by the National Institutes of Health, The Foundation Fighting Blindness, Macula Vision Research Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Research to Prevent Blindness. He was one of the first vision scientists in the country to receive funding from the National Eye Institute to establish a microarray facility, using technology that dramatically speeds the process by which scientists can scan for disease genes. Recently, Dr. Swaroop received a grant from the Elmer and Sylvia Sramek Charitable Foundation to establish a genetics database and data analysis programs at the Kellogg Eye Center.
Paul R. Lichter, M.D., director of the U-M Kellogg Eye Center and Chair of the Department, notes that Dr. Swaroop is a natural choice for the newly-created professorship. “Dr. Swaroop has gained wide recognition for his genetic studies of the retina, including his work on retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. I am pleased that he will hold a professorship named for a Michigan faculty member who had profound insights into medical genetics in the early 1940s, well ahead of his peers in any medical field.”
Dr. Falls helped to establish and then direct, the first Heredity Clinic in the nation. Created in 1941, the clinic evolved into the U-M Department of Human Genetics. During his long association with the University and the Heredity Clinic, Dr. Falls was responsible for describing a rich collection of ophthalmic genetic histories that are still being studied today. In his study of Cooley’s anemia, for example, he began to lay out the principles underlying X-linked inheritance patterns, in which the female carries the mutation and passes it on to a son. He furthered his exploration of X-linked inheritance in eye disease in 1948 when he published a study of a large family with retinitis pigmentosa. He later described the phenotype of X-linked retinoschisis as well. Dr. Falls is an alumnus and Emeritus Professor of the University of Michigan Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.
Dr. Swaroop received his Masters’ degree in biochemistry from G.B. Pant University in 1977 and his doctorate in biochemistry at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in 1982. He then spent eight years as a postdoctoral fellow and associate research scientist in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and human genetics at Yale University Medical School. A member of the University of Michigan faculty since 1990, Dr. Swaroop is a professor in both the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the Department of Human Genetics. He is also a faculty member in the graduate programs in Neuroscience and Cell and Molecular Biology. He is director of the Sensory Gene Microarray Node at the Kellogg Eye Center and coordinator/director of the U-M Center for Retinal and Macular Degeneration.
Dr. Swaroop began his career in vision research with X-linked retinitis pigmentosa before initiating work on other diseases. He has published more than 100 research manuscripts and presented almost 40 invited lectures since 1999. Dr. Swaroop, like Dr. Harold Falls before him, serves as mentor to a growing group of future genetic scholars. In addition to a number of postdoctoral, graduate and medical students, almost 50 undergraduate students (including Dr. Falls’ grandson) have performed research projects in his laboratory during the last 12 years.
In 1997, Dr. Swaroop received the Lew R. Wasserman Merit Award from the Research to Prevent Blindness Foundation. In 2000, he was chosen for the Foundation’s Research Sabbatical Award. He is a reviewer for many leading scientific journals in human genetics and vision research, and is a member of the editorial boards of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science and Molecular Vision. Dr. Swaroop is a member of an NIH study section and reviews grants for several organizations, including the Foundation Fighting Blindness, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, American Federation for Aging Research, the Wellcome Trust (U.K.) and the Comitato Promotore Telethon (Italy).
The installation ceremony will be held at 4:00 p.m., on May 29 at the Kellogg Eye Center. Among those speaking at the event are Allen S. Lichter, M.D., Dean of the U-M Medical School; Dr. Paul Lichter; and Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Eye Institute. Dr. Falls and his family will attend the program. Contact: Betsy Nisbet, 734.647.5586, bsnisbet@umich.edu.
