Q&A: Anat Loewenstein on the Ramin Tadayoni Award

The Ramin Tadayoni Award is an initiative by the EURETINA board and Oculis company to honor the late Professor Ramin Tadayoni and support promising retinal research. This year, Prithvi Ramtohul received the award for his groundbreaking work on neuronal ganglion cell plasticity. The award aims to recognize young researchers who are making significant contributions to understanding and potentially improving vision, reflecting EURETINA's commitment to advancing retinal research and supporting the next generation of scientists.

Note: The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ophthalmology Times: For anyone unfamiliar with the Ramin Tadayoni Award, can you explain this honor?

Anat Loewenstein, MD: The Ramin Tadayoni Award is one of the most exciting endeavors of the EURETINA board, along with the Oculis company. We are granting the Ramin Tadayoni Awards to bright researchers who already contributed and will contribute to the field of retinal disease. It is a wonderful way to remember the past president who unfortunately passed away, Professor Ramin Tadayoni, who was a wonderful researcher, colleague, leader in the field of retina, and a good friend.

OT: Who is the 2025 recipient of the Ramin Tadayoni Award?

Loewenstein: This year, the award was granted to Prithvi Ramtohul for his work on plasticity of neuronal ganglion cells in the retina. It is a very promising research project. I'm sure that Professor Ramin Tadayoni would have been thrilled to see his mentee granted this award because Ramtohul trained also under Professor Ramin Tadayoni. Giving research grants to young researchers with promising projects is one of the things that the EURETINA board is putting on this flag as an important aim. So being able to combine this aim with remembering Professor Ramin Tadayoni, I think, is a very big thing that we can do. I think that the research on plasticity of neuronal cells is going very much along with what's happening nowadays in the general research of retina trying to not only stabilize vision, but also to improve vision, and being able to make modifications in ganglion cells is something that we could only dream about formerly, and now there is a future, and this future goes parallel with many other efforts in our field trying to make vision better for our patients, even in situations, which in the past, seemed to be really untreatable.

OT: How does this award and its mission align with the values of EURETINA?

Loewenstein: For young researchers who have bright ideas and the good research going on, I encourage you very warm heartedly to apply to the Ramin Tadayoni Award and other awards that the research committee is offering. EURETINA puts on its flag the aim to support research. This is one of the main things that the EURETINA board is spending money on. This is one of our main aims. I encourage young researchers to apply for the research grants. This year for the Ramin Tadayoni Award, we had 40 applicants, and each of the applications was reviewed by 5 reviewers and scored accordingly. I believe we chose the most promising one, but there were many others. I warmly encourage you to apply to a research grant in the EURETINA.