James Tribble, PhD receives 2025 Shaffer Research Prize from Glaucoma Research Foundation

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – February 13, 2025: For his research project, “Drug-driven Identification of Inflammatory Pathways in Retinal Microglia,” Dr. James Tribble of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden was awarded the 2025 Shaffer Prize for Innovative Glaucoma Research.

The Shaffer Prize, presented annually by Glaucoma Research Foundation (GRF) during their annual Glaucoma 360 Gala, recognizes a researcher whose project best exemplifies the pursuit of innovative ideas in the quest to better understand and cure glaucoma. Dr. Tribble accepted the award at the Gala last week from Andrew Iwach, MD, GRF Board Chair and Executive Director of the Glaucoma Center of San Francisco.

“The research from Dr. Tribble’s team at the Karolinska Institutet is important because it demonstrates a potential new approach to understanding and treating inflammation in glaucoma,” said Thomas M. Brunner, GRF President and CEO. “Glaucoma Research Foundation is pleased to recognize Dr. Tribble and his team of innovative researchers with the 2025 Shaffer Prize. Research innovation like this is essential to bringing us closer to a cure for glaucoma.”

“Current treatments for glaucoma slow disease progression but are not effective for some patients,” Dr. Tribble explained. “There is research interest in preventing inflammation as a way of protecting the retina and optic nerve. Our goal is to learn more about the process of inflammation in glaucoma, how it may be suppressed without harming the retina’s immune system, and potentially find new drugs which may be of benefit to glaucoma patients,” he added.

The Tribble laboratory identified that some anti-cancer drugs can turn off or dampen inflammation in the immune cells of the retina. They have used these drugs as tools to explore how switching off inflammation may work and made use of drug libraries developed by the cancer research community to test the best way to switch off inflammation and determine which genes are important in this process. From this information they are seeking to develop more targeted strategies by using computer aided drug discovery to find compounds which can produce similar results more effectively. A 2023 Shaffer Grant from GRF helped Dr. Tribble achieve important next steps in his research to broaden the understanding of inflammation and glaucoma and identify potential new treatment targets for further testing and exploration.

The Shaffer Prize for Innovative Glaucoma Research was established in 2007 to honor the late Robert N. Shaffer, MD, a co-founder of Glaucoma Research Foundation. Dr. Shaffer was an early innovator in the field of glaucoma and a Clinical Professor Emeritus in Ophthalmology at University of California San Francisco. Glaucoma Research Foundation continues his legacy of helping those with glaucoma through education and the funding of research to find better therapies and ultimately a cure for glaucoma.

Pictured above: Andrew Iwach, MD (left) presents the Shaffer Prize to James Tribble PhD at the Glaucoma 360 Annual Gala. Posted on February 13, 2025.