Gulab Zode, PhD, Receives Inaugural Cristina Kenney Grant for Vision-Saving Research

At the end of 2025, the Discovery Eye Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to vision-saving research, established a new research grant in memory of its late director, Cristina Kenney, MD, PhD. The grant honors Kenney’s pioneering work at the UC Irvine Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, where she studied how mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to age-related eye diseases and helped identify promising therapies to protect retinal cells and preserve vision.

Continuing her commitment to advancing sight-saving work, the first Kenney Research Grant of $50,000 was awarded to Gulab Zode, PhD, a professor of ophthalmology at the UC Irvine Brunson Center for Translational Vision Research. The funding is in support of Zode’s research addressing the unsolved problem of vision loss in glaucoma patients that continues even when eye pressure is well controlled.

“Glaucoma causes vision loss when retinal nerve cells gradually die,” explains Zode. “Our research focuses on mitochondria — the ‘powerhouses’ of these nerve cells — which become damaged in glaucoma.”

Normally, cells remove damaged mitochondria through a natural cleanup process called mitophagy. However, in glaucoma, this recycling system fails, leading to a buildup of dysfunctional mitochondria, disrupted cellular transport and eventual nerve cell death.

“We’re testing a therapeutic approach that activates this cleanup pathway using a compound called Torin 2,” says Zode. “By restoring mitochondrial quality control in a mouse model of glaucoma, we aim to protect nerve cells and preserve vision.” This work represents an important step toward developing new treatments that directly prevent neurodegeneration in glaucoma patients.

“Support from the Discovery Eye Foundation is critical for sustaining innovative research during this challenging funding climate,” says Zode. “We are deeply grateful for this award, which allows us to continue advancing a promising therapeutic strategy focused on restoring mitochondrial quality control to prevent vision loss in glaucoma.”