Dr. Philip Kiser, assistant professor in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics, is the recipient of the Pisart Award in Vision Science given by the Lighthouse Guild.
The Pisart Award was established in 1981 and has annually recognized an early-career vision clinician, scientist or clinician-scientist whose contributions have the potential to substantially influence vision care and/or vision science and has a proven record of accomplishment.
Dr. Kiser is known for his structural and pharmacological studies on the vertebrate visual cycle, a metabolic pathway responsible for maintaining the light-sensing activity of retinal photoreceptors. He has contributed to our understanding of the molecular mechanism of the key retinoid isomerase of this pathway known as RPE65 through determination of crystal structures of this protein in a variety of ligand-bound states. Some of these ligands are drug candidates known as visual cycle modulators that are currently in clinical testing for various retinopathies.
This work has provided a means to dissect the molecular pharmacodynamics of visual cycle modulators as well as improve their pharmacological properties through rational design approaches.
Prior recipients include former NEI chiefs Kupfer and Sieving, as well as luminaries such as Professors Maumanee, Patz, Machemer, and Cogan, who have been the most important leaders in the field over the past several decades.