Heed-Gutman Award Recipient Announced for 2023
The 2023 Heed-Gutman Award was presented on November 4, 2023 to Dr. Janey L. Wiggs.
2023 Heed-Gutman Award - Janey L. Wiggs, MD, PhD
Janey L. Wiggs, MD, PhD is the Paul Austin Chandler Professor of Ophthalmology and Vice Chair for Clinical Research in Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear. She also directs the CLIA-certified genetic testing laboratory at Mass Eye and Ear and is a co-director of the Ocular Genomics Institute. Dr. Wiggs is a physician scientist and sees patients in the Glaucoma Service at Mass Eye and Ear.
Dr. Wiggs received her BA and PhD degrees in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and her MD degree from Harvard Medical School. She did post-doctoral training in molecular genetics under the direction of Dr. Ted Dryja. Dr. Wiggs completed the ophthalmology residency at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and received fellowship training in glaucoma and also in medical genetics and is one of only a few ophthalmologists certified by the both the American Board of Ophthalmology and the American Board of Medical Genetics. Dr. Wiggs’ research program is focused on the discovery and characterization of genetic factors that contribute to the blinding eye disease glaucoma and has been continuously funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) for over 30 years. She is investigating the genetic etiologies of both early-onset and adult forms of glaucoma and is the PI of the NEIGHBORHOOD consortium for gene discovery in primary open angle glaucoma and a founding member of the International Glaucoma Genetics Consortium (IGGC). She has also participated in research programs funded by the US-INDO joint working group (NEI), the NEI eyeGENE consortium and currently is the co-chair of the Ocular Domain for the ClinGen consortium funded by NHGRI.
Dr. Wiggs was the inaugural chair of the Genetics Group for ARVO and is an ARVO gold fellow. She currently serves on the editorial boards of IOVS, JAMA Ophthalmology, Molecular Vision, Journal of Glaucoma, and Annual Reviews in Vision Science. She is a member of the scientific advisory boards for the Glaucoma Research Foundation, the Glaucoma Foundation and Research to Prevent Blindness and is a past member of the National Advisory Council of the National Eye Institute. She has received the Heed Award, the Heed/Knapp Award, the Research to Prevent Blindness Scholar Award, the AAO Honor Award, the Lew Wasserman Merit Award, the Alcon Research Award, the David L. Epstein award, the Mildred Weisenfeld award and was a winner of the NEI Audacious Goal competition. She has delivered numerous named lectures including the Clinician-Scientist Award lecture (American Glaucoma Society) and the Shaffer Lecture (American Academy of Ophthalmology). She is a member of the Glaucoma Research Society, the American Ophthalmological Society, the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.