Alan D. Proia, MD, PhD

Related Content

Services

• Breast Cancer

Director, Autopsy Services

Department / Division:
Pathology / Pathology

Address:
DUMC 3712
Durham, NC 27710

Office Telephone:
919-684-2482

Fax Telephone:
919-684-2625

• MD, Weill Cornell Medical College (New York), 1980

• Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, 1980-1984

• PhD, Rockefeller University (New York), 1979

Clinical Interests:
Autopsy pathology, ophthalmic pathology, image cytometry, (autopsies available to non-Duke physicians)

Research Interests:
The focus of my ophthalmic research, done in collaboration with Dr. W. Craig Fowler, is to develop the optimal method for correcting and enhancing visual acuity using laser photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) to sculpt the cornea.  Our studies rely on the use of a chicken model of corneal wound healing that we have developed during the past several years.  This model allows detailed clinical, histological, and immunohistochemical analyses of wound healing in the chicken cornea following laser ablation of the central epithelium and subjacent stroma.  The chicken is the only species, other than humans and non-human primates, that possesses a substantial Bowman’s layer, which is involved in anchoring of the epithelium.  Our studies have demonstrated that wound healing following PRK of the chicken cornea closely resembles that of the human cornea clinically and histologically.  We plan to exploit this novel model to examine corneal endothelial cell damage following photorefractive keratectomy. Development of corneal haze (scarring) will be correlated with the types of collagen associated with scarring, and pharmacological methods to abrogate scarring will be developed.

In addition to my ophthalmic research, I am involved in developing new prognostic markers for tumors that have been resected surgically.  My research projects are currently focused on breast and prostate cancer.

Representative Publications:
Fowler WC, Chang DH, Roberts BC, Zarovnaya EL, Proia AD. A new paradigm for corneal wound healing research: the white leghorn chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus).  Curr Eye Res.  2004 Apr;28(4):241-50. (2004) Abstract

Thompson LJ, Wang F, Proia AD, Peters KG, Jarrold B, Greis KD. Proteome analysis of the rat cornea during angiogenesis. Proteomics. 2003 Nov;3(11):2258-66. (2003) Abstract

Butnor KJ, Proia AD. Unexpected autopsy findings arising from postmortem ocular examination. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2001 Sep;125(9):1193-6. (2001) Abstract

Yamada M, Proia AD. 8(S)-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid is the lipoxygenase metabolite of arachidonic acid that regulates epithelial cell migration in the rat cornea. Cornea. 2000 May;19(3 Suppl):S13-20. (2000) Abstract

Dutton, J.J., Frazier Byrne, S., and Proia, A.D.  Diagnostic Atlas of Orbital Diseases,    Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders Co., 2000. (2000)

Ross LL, Danehower SC, Proia AD, Sontag M, Brown DM, Laurenza A, Besterman JM. Coordinated activation of corneal wound response genes in vivo as observed by in situ hybridization. Exp Eye Res. 1995 Oct;61(4):435-50. (1995) Abstract