NEW YORK—SUNY College of Optometry announced that it has been awarded $434,522 through the SUNY Empire Innovation Program to support the expansion of research in oculomics, an emerging field that uses the eye as a window into broader human health. Stewart Bloomfield, vice president at SUNY College of Optometry, will lead the initiative, according to the announcement. This award facilitates the hiring of a new faculty researcher as a SUNY professor of Empire Innovation, a move intended to bolster SUNY Optometry’s expanding research capabilities and further investigations within the emerging field of oculomics, the school said.
“This funding gives SUNY Optometry an opportunity to recruit a tenure track researcher whose work can help build a new platform for discovery,” said David Troilo, Ph.D., president of SUNY College of Optometry. “Support from SUNY’s Empire Innovation Fund enables us to bring on a senior investigator with expertise in AI, deep learning and predictive analytics who can leverage the deep bench of research in retinal imaging at the college.”
“Oculomics brings together vision science, clinical care, imaging and data analysis in ways that could significantly expand what we can learn from the eye,” said Dr. Bloomfield. “By investing in this area, we can support research that may ultimately help clinicians detect disease earlier, understand risk more precisely and develop more personalized approaches to patient care.”
David Troilo, Ph.D.
According to the college, the new SUNY professor of Empire Innovation will help expand SUNY Optometry’s capacity in this area by advancing research that connects vision science, ocular imaging, biomarkers, clinical data and emerging analytical tools.
The SUNY Empire Innovation Program is a state-funded grant program designed to help recruit and retain world-class faculty across the State University of New York system. The program supports faculty hires who expand SUNY’s research capacity in strategic priority areas and strengthen areas where SUNY has established research leadership, the announcement noted.
The award builds on SUNY Optometry’s broader research mission, which includes basic, translational and clinical research focused on understanding vision, preventing eye disease and improving outcomes for patients. The college’s research enterprise includes the Graduate Center for Vision Research, the Schnurmacher Institute for Vision Research and the Clinical Vision Research Center.
