Invitado de Genética: Mark Pennesi
La comisión de Genética, coordinada por los Dres. José Luna Pinto, Angélica Moussalli y Claudia García, anunció la presencia del Dr. Mark Pennesi, de Italia, durante las Jornadas CAO 2015.
Dr. Mark Pennesi was born in Mount Kisco, New York, and moved to Dallas, Texas at a young age. For college, he moved to the east coast and attended the University of Pennsylvania for his undergraduate studies. There he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering and was awarded the Herman P. Schwann award in bioengineering for exemplary scholarship. Dr. Pennesi's interest in degenerative retinal disorders began shortly after his first year in college, when he spent a summer working at the Retina Foundation of the Southwest. There he worked under the supervision of Dr. David Birch and saw patients with retinal degenerations such as retinitis pigmentosa as well as studying animal models of this disease. After college, Dr. Pennesi was recruited by Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, to attend a combined M.D./Ph.D. program. He performed his graduate Ph.D. work in the Department of Neuroscience in the lab of Dr. Samuel Wu. His thesis work focused on identifying new animal models of retinal degeneration. He received numerous awards while in graduate school, including the John J. Trentin Award, for earning the highest GPA in his class and the BRASS scholarship for playing an active role in community service. For his residency training, Dr. Pennesi spent his internship year in San Diego at Scripps Mercy Hospital, followed by his ophthalmology residency at the University of California San Francisco. During residency he was awarded the Hogan/Garcia award for the best resident research project. After residency he completed an Ophthalmic Genetics Fellowship under the tutelage of Dr. Richard Weleber. Dr. Pennesi joined the faculty of the Casey Eye Institute as an Assistant Professor in Ophthalmic Genetics and is a member of the Oregon Retinal Degeneration Center. He also serves as the Director of the Visual Functions Service and is Director of the Ophthalmic Genetics Fellowship at Casey. Both Research to Prevent Blindness and the Foundation Fighting Blindness have recognized Dr. Pennesi with Career Development Awards to support his ambition to conduct transitional research that will bring treatments for diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa from the laboratory to the clinic. He is the recipient of the 2011 ARVO/Alcon EarlyClinician Scientist award and was awarded the Alcon Young investigator Award in 2014. His research focuses on developing novel treatments for inherited retinal diseases. He is currently exploring the potential of a new class of drugs to up regulate protective growth factors in the retina. In his free time, Dr. Pennesi enjoys hiking, skiing, reading literature, and karaoke.