Arlene Drack, MD (pediatrics/genetics) was promoted to tenured full professor and was one of 4 ophthalmology faculty honored yesterday for attaining professor status (others were Markus Kuehn, PhD; Scott Larson, MD; and Terry Braun, PhD -- more photos/info from event to be included in next week's Update). Dr. Drack is the first woman in the history of the department of ophthalmology to be promoted to tenured full professor. Dr. Drack recently received 3 grants to continue her research. The Chakraborty Foundation is funding a $300,000 project to study Juvenile X-linked Retinoschisis, The Canadian Foundation Fighting Blindness is funding a study on gene therapy in the Bardet Biedl Syndrome 10 mouse model, and Vision for Tomorrow is funding a collaboration between Dr. Drack and the Medical College of Wisconsin to study structure/function relationships in the eyes of albinism patients. The first two projects will be conducted in the Drack lab in the University of Iowa Institute for Vision Research (IVR), while the third project utilizes human electrophysiology.