Dr. Antonia Howaldt wins the Science Prize of the Eye Foundation

Dr. Antonia Howaldt was awarded the Science Prize of the Eye Foundation for her work on corneal myofibromatosis at this year’s congress of the German Ophthalmological Society (DOG), October 10-13 in Berlin. The prize money amounts to €2,500.

In the study, the authors describe the disease-causing, heterozygous gain-of-function variants in the platelet-derived growth factor receptor-beta (PDGFRB) gene, which codes for the class III receptor tyrosine kinase PDGFRb, in four patients from two independent families with corneal myofibromatosis using panel-based exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing. After transfection of the present PDGFRB variants into cultured HEK293T cells, they conferred constitutive activity to the receptor in the absence of its ligand and were sensitive to the tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib. The findings of this study provide a perspective for the development of an individualized therapy for patients with corneal myofibromatosis. Until now, surgical excision procedures have been associated with a pronounced tendency to recur.

The paper “Corneal Infantile Myofibromatosis Caused by Novel Activating Imatinib-Responsive Variants in PDGFRB” was published digitally in Ophthalmology Science in December 2023.

Dr. Howaldt works as a clinician scientist in basic and clinical research as well as in patient care. She has been the second spokesperson of the Young DOG since October 2022. The Department of Ophthalmology at the University Hospital Cologne is very pleased about her honor.