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NORTH AMERICAN Newsline NOVEMBER 10, 2023 | The Indian Eye 30

AMIA SRINIVASAN & RIDHI KASHYAP and before that, I did a BA at Yale. I work on topics in political philosophy,
epistemology, the history and theory of feminism, and metaphilosophy,” Sri-
Professors win 2023 Philip nivasan said.
Srinivasan’s first book, The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-first
Century, was published in 2021. It was an instant Sunday Times bestseller,
Leverhulme prize winner of the Blackwell’s Book of the Year, and has been shortlisted for both
the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Orwell Prize.
DR VINIT MAHAJAN

Researcher develops an eye-ag-

ing clock at Stanford

ndian origin academics from the University of Oxford and a south Asian
historian from King’s College London are among 30 winners of the UK’s
I£3-million 2023 Leverhulme Trust award, which recognises exceptional re-
search across different fields.
Professor Amia Srinivasan from the Faculty of Philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Oxford has been recognised for her work on epistemology, social rof Vinit Mahajan and a team of researchers, using artificial intelligence
and political philosophy, feminism, metaphilosophy and the history of phi- (AI), developed an eye-aging “clock,” indicating which proteins acceler-
losophy. Pate aging in each disease and revealing new potential targets for thera-
Fellow Oxford University Professor, Ridhi Kashyap, from the Depart- pies. The scientists looked at nearly 6,000 proteins in the fluid and found that
ment of Sociology, has been honoured for her work on demography, social they can use 26 of them to predict aging.
statistics, computational social science, digital and computational demogra- Using a technique they developed for studying eye fluid, Stanford Medi-
phy, and gender inequalities. cine researchers and their collaborators have found a way to measure ocular
“Oxford is an exciting place to conduct research at the intersection of de- aging, opening avenues for treatment of numerous eye diseases. The study
mography and computational social science. I look forward to continuing my was published by Dr Vinit Mahajan, MD, PhD, a professor of ophthalmolo-
research in both substantive and methodological directions and contributing gy, who is the senior author, and Dr Julian Wolf, MD, a postdoctoral scholar
to the advancement of digital and computational demography,” said Kashy- in Mahajan’s lab, is the lead author of the paper.
ap, on receiving the honour. Mahajan and his colleagues intend to apply the clock method to other bodi-
This scheme commemorates the contribution to the work of the Trust ly fluids to develop more effective drugs for a variety of diseases. “This is one
made by Philip, Third Viscount Leverhulme and grandson of William Lever, of the best connections ever made that suggests disease triggers accelerated
the founder of the Trust. The prizes recognise and celebrate the achieve- aging,” he said. To glean the most information possible with small, renewable
ments of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted inter- samples, Mahajan and his team developed a technique — TEMPO, or trac-
national recognition and whose future careers are exceptionally promising, ing expression of multiple protein origins. By tracing proteins to a type of cell
said a release by the trust. Each prize is worth £100,000 and may be used to where the RNA that creates the proteins resides, TEMPO allows the scien-
advance the prize winner’s research. tists to understand the cellular origin of disease-driving proteins with the hope
Professor Ridhi Kashyap who is in the Department of Sociology of the that eventually they can target the cells with personalized medical treatments.
University of Oxford has been awarded for her work on demographic be- “The first step in developing any kind of successful therapy is understand-
haviours. “My research spans different areas of demography, including ques- ing the molecules,” Mahajan said. “At the molecular level, patients present
tions linked to mortality and population health, gender inequality, marriage different manifestations even with the same disease. With a molecular finger-
and family, and migration and ethnicity. I have worked on the demographic print like we’ve developed, we could pick drugs that work for each patient.”
manifestations and implications of son preference as one of the most striking To better understand which cellular processes contribute to various eye
ways gender inequality interacts with demographic behaviours. In the areas diseases, the team analyzed liquid biopsies taken from the aqueous humor —
of family demography, I have been studying the relationship between edu- fluid between the lens and the cornea — while patients were locally anesthe-
cational expansion, gender norms, and marriage and partnership patterns in tized during surgery. The fluid was collected in patients with three types of eye
different contexts,” she said. diseases: diabetic retinopathy, which causes blood vessels in the eye to leak,
Professor Amia Srinivasan who is in the Faculty of Philosophy, also of leading to vision loss; retinitis pigmentosa, which causes light-sensitive cells
the University of Oxford has been awarded for her work on epistemology, in the back of the eye to break down; and uveitis, inflammation inside the eye.
social and political philosophy, feminism, metaphilosophy, and history of To read more about Indian diaspora and Global Indians,
philosophy. “I have completed my BPhil and DPhil in Philosophy at Oxford, log-on to our website www.theindianeye.com

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