Laurie Bronson and Robert Dolinko give back to DEF
DEF donors Laurie Bronson, from Philadelphia, and Robert Dolinko, from New York City, met while attending Cornell University in upstate New York. She then studied at Columbia University and became a psychotherapist, he at New York University to become an attorney. They married in 1976 and moved across the country to the San Francisco Bay Area the following year, so Bronson could do post-graduate work and Bob could join a law firm; they’ve been there ever since.
Fast-forward a few decades, and the oldest of their two children, Andrew Dolinko (meet him in our DEF’s spring 2019 newsletter), began UC Irvine’s Medical Scientist MD/PhD Training Program, which provides medical school, PhD program and a stipend at no cost to top-tier students. He also began working in DEF Research Director Dr. Cristina Kenney’s lab, researching mitochondrial DNA and the impact it has on how people react to disease based on their ancestry.
“The school paid for everything for Andrew, and we wanted to give back,” Bronson says. “We were looking for a way to contribute when he landed in Dr. Kenney’s lab. We said, ‘Aha! Here is something we really believe in.’ It’s wonderful to know research is being done for less invasive ways to treat ocular disease, which is so pervasive. The potential for more personalized medicine based on people’s make-ups is very significant.”
DEF Medical Director Dr. Anthony Nesburn and Kenney became mentors to Andrew, who has been working in Kenney’s lab since 2016. “It’s meant a tremendous amount to us to support DEF, on a personal level, as Tony and Cris have contributed so much to our son’s career development,” Bronson says. “And on an overarching level, we are able to help fund such significant research. It’s the future of medicine.”