Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most prevalent, and most vexing, of ophthalmological diseases. That is precisely why Wilmer’s Mira Sachdeva, M.D, Ph.D., has focused her research skills upon this blinding condition that affects more than 100 million people worldwide. Sachdeva, a former chief resident at Wilmer and now an assistant professor, studies how the retinopathy begins in the early stages of diabetes.
“Diabetic retinopathy is classically considered a disease of the blood vessels in the retina, but we are interested in how diabetes damages retinal nerves as well,” Sachdeva says of her approach. “There’s more and more evidence that patients with diabetes demonstrate retinal thinning and loss of nerve tissue long before we see any damage to the blood vessels, so the earliest harmful effects of diabetes on the retina may occur before a patient is even diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy.”
Sachdeva is using the very latest medical imaging technology to study the changes in nerves and blood vessels in diabetic retinopathy. These imaging techniques provide an unprecedented view into the eye, where she aims to track retinal thinning and changes in the nerves and blood vessels over long periods of time in patients, starting in early diabetes.
Such knowledge, Sachdeva says, raises the possibility of earlier diagnosis, and potentially earlier interventions, that could reduce or stop progression of the disease. These studies complement Sachdeva’s work in the lab investigating exactly how the retina’s cells are affected in diabetes.
Though Sachdeva has been thinking about these various approaches since the outset of her career, there's only so much she can tackle at once. Like all young researchers, Sachdeva continues to face the hurdles of getting her lab staffed, equipped, and up and running, all while juggling her clinical responsibilities.
“Getting equipment that I need, the infrastructure, the personnel are big challenges,” she says. “And then there are the mouse models and cell lines that must be developed. These are essential for any research to begin.”
These logistical and financial barriers can often delay a promising research career for years. But Sachdeva’s ideas showed enough promise that she was awarded early-career investigator funding from both the National Eye Institute and Research to Prevent Blindness to support her lab research.
Building a clinical research arm studying diabetic retinopathy in patients requires even more demands on time and funding. Based on her innovative research proposal, Sachdeva recently earned a Clinical Scientist Development Award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, a three-year stipend specifically to fund the transition to independent clinical research. She was one of just 17 awardees nationally this year. Sachdeva has also been helped by gifts from The Robert P. and Arlene R. Kogod Family Foundation, which recognized her potential from the beginning of her faculty appointment at Wilmer. She says such funding has proved foundational in getting her research career off the ground.