Dr. Paula Sakemi Fukuhara has learned to embrace the unexpected. She thought she’d be a lawyer or a journalist, but, instead, she decided to follow in the footsteps of her father, an ophthalmologist, and attend medical school.
When the Brazil native was in her final year of a surgical retinal fellowship, she was encouraged to go to the United States, where there is a wider breadth of research options she could pursue. So nearly three years ago, she contacted Gavin Herbert Eye Institute Director and UC Irvine Department of Ophthalmology Chair Dr. Baruch Kuppermann, hoping to do one year of research that would help her pursue her PhD upon returning to Brazil.
Kuppermann made Fukuhara an unexpected offer. He co-heads a unique fellowship program with DEF Research Director Dr. Cristina Kenney, in which ophthalmologists come to UC Irvine for two years. They spend a third of their time in UCI’s retina clinic with Kuppermann, and the rest of the time doing retinal research in the Kuppermann/Kenney lab.
During her time at UC Irvine, Fukuhara primarily worked on a project involving the syringes used for intravitreal injections, which are given to thousands of patients each week to treat retinal diseases worldwide. “The syringes used to do intravitreal injections are coated with silicon oil to make the plunger work more easily,” Fukuhara explains. “When you draw up the medication into the syringe, bubbles may form, so the physician taps the syringe with a finger to dislodge the bubbles before the injections. The flicking of the syringe may release the silicon oil droplets into the drug, which is then injected into the eye. This may cause vitreous inflammation and other ocular issues, such as floaters.” Fukuhara is studying different syringes’ inflammatory effects on cells in vitro in an effort to minimize the release of potentially dangerous silicon oil into the eye.
Now nearing the end of her fellowship at UCI, she has found a real affinity for “basic” research, the first stage in the research process, which establishes the foundation on which future research is built.
“Thanks to what I’ve learned, I’m planning to keep doing ‘basic’ research when I return to Brazil,” she says. “Research is the key to evidence-based medicine, and the first steps are the most important. Especially now, in the time of COVID-19, we need to be able to trust in good research.”
The studies are still ongoing, but the preliminary results suggest that the cultured retinal cells may not be harmed by the flicking procedure, which is actually a good finding for patients.
“It can be disappointing when research doesn’t turn out as you’d hoped,” Fukuhara says. “But Dr. Kenney taught me negative results can be very important. Sometimes you have to find out what doesn’t work, before you can find out what does. Sometimes the unexpected is just what you need to move forward.”