Ashland's Posner receives $305,000 NIH research grant

Mason Posner will use the research grant to study zebrafish to investigate treatments for cataracts.
Mason Posner will use the research grant to study zebrafish to investigate treatments for cataracts. | File photo

Ashland University's Mason Posner, chairperson the Department of Biology and Toxicology, has been awarded a $305,000 research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue his research using the small zebrafish to investigate the cause of and prevention for cataracts.

The grant will also cover undergraduate research students stipends, supplies, equipment and conference expenses.

Posner said the three-year research grant from the NIH’s Academic Research Enhancement Program exposes students to research, strengthens the university's research environment and supports commendable research.

Posner has worked with funding from the NIH since 2001. This grant is an extension of that work to understand how proteins, also known as alpha crystallins, help preserve eye lens transparency by using the zebra fish as a model organism.