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.

Johanna M. Seddon,
MD, Tufts University

Dr. Seddon is a world known macular degeneration specialist and pioneer in nutritional and genetic research in age-related macular degeneration, as well as an international leader in the field of ophthalmic epidemiology. For more than 20 years Dr. Seddon has directed NIH-based research on epidemiologic, biologic, and genetic biomarkers for macular degeneration and has made original contributions in these areas. Dr. Seddon is Professor of Ophthalmology at Tufts University School of Medicine and founding director of the Ophthalmic Epidemiology & Genetics Service at the New England Eye Center. She was a vice-president and trustee of ARVO, and the recipient of the inaugural Maurice F. Rabb, Jr. Award from Prevent Blindness America, for dedication and contributions to prevention and treatment of age-related macular degeneration.

Janet Stoltz Sunness,
MD, Hoover Services for Low Vision and Blindness

Dr. Sunness is an accomplished researcher in understanding how diseases cause loss of vision and has directed several National Institutes of Health-funded studies in this field. Currently, Dr. Sunness is a medical director at Hoover Services for Low Vision and Blindness at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Her clinical practice focuses on low vision and on retinal and macular disease. An ophthalmologist by training, Dr. Sunness is a leading world expert on geographic atrophy, the advanced dry form of age-related macular degeneration and has also pioneered new methods of measuring visual function. Dr. Sunness is also a leading world expert on how pregnancy affects the mother’s eyes, both in cases of pre-existing conditions like diabetes as well as when diseases develop during pregnancy.