Knights Templar Eye Foundation Leaders Visit UCI to Celebrate Career-Starter Grant Recipient and Meet Program Alumni

IRVINE, Calif. — Representatives of the Knights Templar Eye Foundation (KTEF) visited the University of California, Irvine this month to celebrate the Foundation's newest UCI grant recipient and tour the campus's expanding vision research facilities.

Jennifer Bickerstaff and John Bickerstaff, representing the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, visited the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences to present Yexuan Cao, MD, PhD, with the Foundation's 2026 Career-Starter Research Grant. Dr. Cao, a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Rui Chen, PhD, in UCI's Brunson Center for Translational Vision Research (BCTVR), was awarded $100,000 to support her research into a newly identified gene linked to inherited retinal disease.

Kris Palczewski, PhD, Director, Brunson Center for Translational Vision Research, John Bickerstaff, Knights Templar Foundation, Yexuan Cao, MD, PhD, 2026 awardee and Rui Chen, PhD, Professor, Brunson Center for Translational Vision Research

Dr. Cao's project, “FSD1L as a Novel Candidate Gene for Inherited Retinal Diseases: Mechanistic and Therapeutic Investigation,” builds on preliminary findings from six affected individuals across four unrelated families, all presenting with childhood-onset night blindness and progressive retinitis pigmentosa. Her team identified FSD1L, a gene highly enriched in the eye's light-sensing photoreceptor cells, as the sole causal candidate. With KTEF support, Dr. Cao will generate and characterize a mouse model carrying the disease-associated mutation and develop an in vivo gene augmentation therapy aimed at restoring photoreceptor function.

Inherited retinal diseases affect an estimated 5.5 million people worldwide, and 20 to 30 percent of patients still lack a genetic diagnosis. Dr. Cao's work aims to close part of that gap while laying the groundwork for a future gene therapy.

During their visit, the Bickerstaffs toured UCI's new Falling Leaves Medical Building and the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute's clinical facility and met with past KTEF-funded scholars whose research continues to build on the Foundation's investment in early-career vision scientists. Rafal Holubowicz, PhD, a previous Career-Starter Grant recipient, led the tour, joined by Aleksander Tworak, PhD, both of whom shared updates on their own KTEF- supported research.

Lab Tour Photos: Rafal Holubowicz, PhD, 2025 awardee is giving the team the tour of the new facility at Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Building

The Knights Templar Eye Foundation Career-Starter Research Grant is designed to help launch the careers of clinical and basic science researchers whose work advances the understanding, prevention and treatment of vision-threatening diseases in infants and children. Since its founding in 1956, KTEF has contributed more than $181 million to vision-related research, patient care and education, including more than $41 million in pediatric ophthalmology and ophthalmic genetics research grants.

Dr. Cao earned her MD from Wuhan University and her PhD from Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Tsinghua University, and completed postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine before joining UCI's Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in 2024. She has authored 24 first-author publications and her prior work in lipid metabolism and cardiovascular risk has informed international clinical guidelines, including the 2019 and 2022 ESC/EAS guidelines and the 2022 and 2023 AACE guidelines.

Full Team: Rafal Holubowicz, PhD, 2025 awardee, Jennifer Bickerstaff, Knights Templar Foundation, John Bickerstaff, Knights Templar Foundation, Yexuan Cao, MD, PhD, 2026 awardee, Anna Kiker, MBA, Associate Director, Brunson Center for Translational Vision Research, Rui Chen, PhD, Professor, Brunson Center for Translational Vision Research, Kris Palczewski, PhD, Director, Brunson Center for Translational Vision Research

Last Year Awardees: Rafal Holubowicz, PhD, 2025 awardee, John Bickerstaff, Knights Templar Foundation, Yexuan Cao, MD, PhD, 2026 awardee, Aleksander Tworak, PhD, 2025 awardee

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About the Brunson Center for Translational Vision Research
The Brunson Center for Translational Vision Research, within UCI's Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, brings together clinician-scientists and basic researchers to translate discoveries in retinal genetics, gene therapy and regenerative medicine into new treatments for blinding eye disease.
About the Knights Templar Eye Foundation
Founded in 1956 and sponsored by the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar, the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to improving vision through research, education and access to care, with a focus on preventing and curing vision-threatening diseases in infants and children. Learn more at www.ktef.org.