First Procter Award Goes to AMD Researcher

A researcher seeking to establish a fruit fly model of age-related macular degeneration will be the first recipient of an award from the William Procter Scientific Innovation Fund. Vicki P. Losick, PhD, a scientist at the MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, will receive the award for her “high-risk/high-reward” project, establishing a model that mimics the cellular dysfunction associated with human retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration. She will use the model to study the genetics underlying the disease, and potentially to test for interventions to prevent or reverse it, according to a press release from the Procter Fund, named for William Procter, a descendent of one of the founders of Procter & Gamble.