by Satina Richardson

Juan “Jenny” Huang, PhD, OD, MPH, has joined the UAB School of Optometry as an assistant professor, tenure track.  She comes to UAB from The Ohio State University College of Optometry where she was a research assistant professor.

“What attracted me to UABSO the most was the opportunities to collaborate across campus, including with school of medicine and school of public health,” she said.

Huang’s current research interests focus on studying the pathogenesis of myopia and developing strategies to prevent the onset and progression of myopia through translational research.

In 2015, she received a 5-year K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health to investigate a novel myopia control strategy by combining treatments of soft bifocal contact lenses and 0.01% atropine in children.

Soon, she will conclude the project at the Ohio State University College of Optometry and is hoping to analyze and publish the data in the near future. The baseline data and methods of this study were published in Optometry and Vision Science in May 2019.  

Huang earned her doctorate of optometry and PhD in physiological optics/vision science from the University of Houston College of Optometry.  Her master’s degree in public health with a concentration in clinical translational science was received from The Ohio State University College of Public Health.