Scientific Advisory Board

Peter Campochiaro,
MD, John Hopkins University

Dr. Campochiaro is Professor of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His major research interests include studying the roles of peptide growth and trophic factors in the retina and retinal pigmented-epithelium with an ultimate goal of developing new treatments for proliferative retinopathies, choroidal neovascularization, and retinal degenerations. Dr. Campochiaro received his B.S. from the University of Notre Dame, his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and his postgraduate training at the University of Virginia and the Wilmer Eye Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1991.

Participation by Dr. Campochiaro as a consultant does not constitute or imply endorsement by the Johns Hopkins University or the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System.

Gabriel Coscas,
MD, University of Paris XII

Dr. Gabriel Coscas is Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology at the University of Paris XII and an internationally recognized authority on diseases of the retina and their treatment. He has more than thirty years of research and clinical experience and has published over 250 articles in peer-reviewed journals and written a number of books such as "Retinal Vein Occlusion" (1978) that remain classics in the field and more recently two books titled "Dégénérecence maculaire liée à l'âge" (1991; main Report at French Ophtalmological Society) and "Atlas on ICG Angiograpy and correlation with FA and OCT" (2004, Elsevier edit). Professor Coscas has devoted most of his efforts to the study of retinal disorders, particularly diseases of the macula, and has pioneered new diagnostic techniques including fluorescein and indocyanin angiography as well as groundbreaking therapies such as laser treatment for neovascularization. He organized and directed the first controlled randomized clinical trial on Macular Laser Photocoagulation for age-related macular degeneration, in France (1977-1982).

Karl G. Csaky,
MD/PhD, Duke University Medical Center

Dr. Csaky is an associate investigator in the Department of Ophthalmology at the Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Csaky received his combined M.D./Ph.D. degree from the University of Louisville. Following residency in internal medicine at Duke University, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and worked with Professor Meyer-Schwickerath in Essen, Germany. He completed his ophthalmology residency at Washington University and a retina fellowship at the Wilmer Eye Institute. This was followed by a 3-year post-doctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. His main area of research is on age-related macular degeneration where he is conducts both laboratory and clinical research; his laboratory is studying the pathogenesis of all forms of age-related macular degeneration and investigating the use of sustained drug delivery as a therapeutic modality for this disease. .

Henry Kaplan,
MD, University of Louisville

Dr. Kaplan is Evans Professor of Ophthalmology, Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Louisville, and Director of the Kentucky Lions Eye Center. Dr. Kaplan is an authority on age-related macular degeneration and has published widely in this area. Dr. Kaplan's research interests include studying the underlying causes of neovascularization (abnormal development of new blood vessels). He has recently identified an important role for the complement cascade, specifically the membrane attack complex (MAC) in development of neovasculature in the eye. Dr. Kaplan has also explored the use of a novel human immunoconjugate as an anti-angiogenic agent for inhibiting choroidal vascularization and tumor angiogenesis. Additional studies are currently underway to inhibit choroidal vascularization with the use of small interfering RNA (siRNA). Dr. Kaplan received his A.B. from Columbia University and his M.D. from Cornell Medical School. His postgraduate training includes a surgical residency at Bellevue Hospital, New York University Medical Center, an ophthalmology residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and a Retina-Vitreous Fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Armen Tashjian,
MD, Harvard University

Armen H. Tashjian, Jr., MD is Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, emeritus at Harvard Medical School where his research has focused on the biochemical and molecular mechanisms of signal transduction with an emphasis on neuropeptides and their receptors. A second long-term interest has been on intracellular and extracellular calcium metabolism and skeletal biology and pharmacology. He founded the Department of Molecular and Cellular Toxicology at the Harvard School of Public Health where he is Professor of Toxicology, emeritus. He has been an officer in numerous scientific societies, served on NIH study sections and government advisory panels, and on the editorial boards of over 15 scientific journals including the New England Journal of Medicine. He has been a senior advisor to a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and venture capital funds. He is an elected member of the Norwegian Academy for Science and Letters and is Deputy Editor of the recently published textbook entitled Principles of Pharmacology: The Pathophysiologic Basis of Drug Therapy.