Antonia Howaldt accepted into the Cologne Clinician Scientist Program

We proudly announce that Antonia Howaldt has been accepted into the Clinician Scientist Program of the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne.

Designed for physician-scientists seeking careers that combine research with clinical training, the Cologne Clinician Scientist Program offers a three-year program with protected research time supporting translational research (50% clinical training, 50% research), a mentoring system, and an accompanying individual curriculum.

Antonia Howaldt is a first-year Ophthalmology resident at the Ophthalmology Department of the University of Cologne. She finished her medical studies at Charité University in Berlin in December 2019. In the final year of medical school, she completed clerkships at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago, Illinois.

Antonia Howaldt has conducted research in the field of human genetics at the Institute of Medical Genetics and Human Genetics of the Charité Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. She was previously funded by the Berlin Institute of Health within the Medical Student Research Stipend program for 12 months. Her work led to three peer-reviewed papers and several presentations at scientific meetings.

Projected research at the Department of Ophthalmology will focus on corneal disease. As a member of the FOR 2240 research group, she is part of Project 1 led by Prof. Cursiefen and PD Dr. Felix Bock. As a member of the AG Fuchs’ Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy (FECD), she will investigate the genetics and molecular pathophysiology of FECD and work on clinical corneal imaging under the supervision of Prof. Bachmann and PD Dr. Matthaei.