A duo from the University of Victoria have been finalists to receive funding to enhance their vision research.
Dr. Bridget Ryan and Dr. Bob Chow rounded out the top three with Eye on the Cure from Fighting Blindness Canada.
Total prize money for the contest is $100,000.
Chow is a professor and Ryan is a postdoctoral researcher in UVic’s Department of Biology.
Ryan and Chow plan to use the award to develop a treatment for Stargardt’s disease, which causes blindness in children.
“We’ve been studying Stargardt disease for the past few years,” Chow said. “It’s an inherited form of blindness. There’s no cure for it. The first part of this funding is now to complete the basic understanding of the disease, and then we’ll move on to developing a treatment.”
The program will be provided to watch online for free Friday.
“It’s a very unique contest or fundraiser that they’re trying to do this year,” Chow added. “We had to present our research proposal to a panel of three judges. It went very well.”
audience can vote Donate $50 and win a $30,000 People’s Choice Award.
“It costs a lot of money to do lab research,” Zhou said.
The winners of the People’s Choice Awards will be announced Tuesday on the Canadian Fight Blindness Facebook page.
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