Lady Puja Mullins, COT Named Distinguished Teacher of the Year

Congratulations to Lady Puja Mullins, COT on being named Distinguished Teacher of the Year by the Ann Arbor/ Ypsilanti Regional Chamber. This was announced today to a crowd of her students at the Brick Elementary School Auditorium and a breakfast recognizing her along with other educators from our area will be held on May 18th. Tickets are available on the Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti Regional Chamber Website.

Knights Templar Educational Foundation Scholarship Renewal Presented to Ms. Katherine Ellis of Ann Arbor

On Thursday 21st April S.K. Art Davidge, KCT, Recorder of Ann Arbor Commandery had the honor of presenting a Knights Templar Educational Foundation scholarship grant check to Ms. Katherine Ellis of Ann Arbor. Ms.Ellis is completing her 1st year at the University of Michigan's College of Engineering where she is majoring in Chemical Engineering. She is an active Rainbow with Phoenix Assembly #49 and recently became a member of her family's OES Chapter in Ohio.

Sir Knight Brandon Mullins, PC, OC Published in Knights Templar Magazine

Be sure to check out March's issue of Knights Templar Magazine for a special article by our very own Past Commander, Brandon Mullins, where he discusses "A Place of a Skull." This is a version of the paper he presented at the 68th Triennial Conclave of the Grand Encampment Knights Templar USA where he was inducted as the first member of a new order of Templar scholars, the Order of Clairvaux. You can find all issues of Knights Templar Magazine at: https://www.knightstemplar.org/KnightTemplar/archive/

Dr. Warren Pan from Michigan Medicine's Kellogg Eye Center awarded $70,000 Knights Templar Eye Foundation Grant for Inherited Retinal Disease Research

Dr. Warren Pan from the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center was awarded a $70,000 grant to study: Pharmacologic activation of PKM2 for photoreceptor neuroprotection in inherited retinal diseases.

A leading cause of childhood blindness is due to a collection of over 280 inherited mutations that disrupt the photoreceptor cells of the eyes from converting light to vision. These photoreceptor cells are very active and require significant energy to perform their functions. They will examine PKM2, an enzyme important in energy production that is also linked to a gene mutation that results in childhood blindness.

The research goal is to pharmacologically increase the activity of PKM2 to improve photoreceptor health and subsequently vision. Dr. Pan will continually treat an animal model of inherited photoreceptor degeneration with our PKM2 activator drug and evaluate visual function, photoreceptor survival, and photoreceptor metabolism over the disease time-course. By studying these changes over time with and without the drug, we will begin to understand the cellular and metabolic mechanisms responsible for this devastating group of diseases that cause childhood blindness. These studies will move us closer to developing a novel drug capable of treating vision loss in this diverse set of inherited diseases regardless of gene mutation.

Sir Knight Brandon B. Mullins, PC Inducted as First Member of a New Order of Templar Scholars, the Order of Clairvaux

Congratulations to Sir Knight Brandon B. Mullins, PC on being inducted as the first member of a new Order of Templar scholars, the Order of Clairvaux. Admission to this prestigious institution is restricted to just one Sir Knight each Triennium. In addition, he presented the paper which merited his selection before all those present at the 68th Triennial Conclave of the Grand Encampment Knights Templar USA and was recognized at the 165th Grand Conclave of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Michigan.

DSC06473 copy.jpg
DSC06504 copy.jpg