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Phillip Kish, Ph.D., helped keep researchers and their projects safe during the COVID-19 shut-down.
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IT’S OUTSTANDING HOW WELL EVERYONE AT KELLOGG HAS
COMPLIED WITH BEST PRACTICES.
Advancing Research Safely
— Phillip Kish, Ph.D.
2020 was a banner year for research at Kellogg. This Annual Report highlights some of our new research, which include 7 new R0-1 NIH grants and major foundation grants. All are
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designed to provide insight into how best to treat, cure or
prevent vision loss, ranging from bench laboratory experiments
laboratories to continue to function,” says Dr. Kish. “Our goal
to clinical trials to health services and implementation science.
was to ensure that every lab would be able to resume work with
a minimum of preparations and to ensure that precious and
The world of research — like every other aspect of our
“There is an incredible amount of maintenance needed by
lives — was significantly impacted by COVID-19. Laboratories
sometimes irreplaceable samples were not lost due to equipment
and clinical studies were suddenly paused for nearly 3 months,
failures.” Once restrictions were eased, increasing lab operations
except for urgent situations and care for patients in therapeutic
in phases presented another set of challenges, says Dr. Kish.
trials. A longstanding culture of continuous safety improvement
enabled Kellogg to quickly adopt new protocols to protect our
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Environ-
researchers and their vital work — and then to ramp up when
mental Health Services at the University, as well as Medical
state restrictions were eased.
School guidelines,” he says. This included analyzing the number
of people the labs could realistically hold while maintaining
Phillip Kish, Ph.D., Laboratory Research Specialist Lead in
“We needed to follow the guidelines and protocols set by
Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences and Lab Safety Liaison for
appropriate physical distancing. These new practices often
the department, built on the culture of safety he and his safety
resulted in innovative ways of scheduling, changes which will
predecessor, Mohammad Othman, Ph.D., helped develop. Prior
continue. “It’s outstanding how well everyone at Kellogg has
to COVID-19, Dr. Kish would regularly visit with laboratories
complied with best practices,” says Dr. Kish, with recognition
to discuss concerns and highlight safety opportunities. When
by Michigan Medicine for success in keeping the labs safe
laboratories were closed, Dr. Kish continued his inspections to
while pursuing our research endeavors.
maintain the safety and function of essential laboratory equip-
ment and research materials. By making sure this equipment
rooms are under construction to help our scientists advance our
and warning systems remained operational, he ensured that no
mission to treat, cure and prevent vision loss. The new facilities
disasters befell Kellogg laboratories and that operations would
will be an ideal environment to discover new treatments for
be able to efficiently and safely resume upon their reopening.
eye diseases such as choroideremia and macular degeneration.
As Kellogg moves forward, two new stem cell research