C. Ross Ethier, PhD
Dr. C. Ross Ethier is a Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Lawrence L. Gellerstedt Jr. Chair in Bioengineering, and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. His research focuses on understanding how glaucoma damages cells and tissues in the eye, and also in identifying strategies and therapies to repair this damage. The Ethier Lab develops strategies to protect fragile neural cells within the eye with the hopes that the treatment will prevent blindness. His lab is also developing stem cell-based therapies to help control intraocular pressure in glaucoma.
Bailey Hannon, PhD
Dr. Bailey Hannon is a Senior Scientific Researcher in the Translational Immunology Department at Genentech. Her research is focused on early and late stage preclinical research of both small and large molecular therapies for glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. Bailey received her PhD in BioEngineering from Georgia Tech in 2020 and was co-advised by Dr. C. Ross Ethier and Dr. Machelle Pardue. The focus of her PhD was on developing and assessing a scleral stiffening treatment for glaucoma.
Markus Kuehn, Ph.D
Dr. Markus Kuehn is a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Iowa, the principal investigator of the Glaucoma Cell Biology lab, and a member of the Institute for Vision Research.. He is also the associate director of the Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Visual Loss.
Dr Kuehn’s research focuses on identifying the cellular and genetic mechanisms in glaucoma. His research investigates strategies to repair the trabecular meshwork, an important tissue which helps to regulate intraocular pressure, and in understanding the impact of chronic inflammation on glaucoma.
Alex Levin, MD, MHSc, FAAP, FAAO, FRCSC
Dr Alex Levin is a Pediatric Ophthalmologist, a Professor of Ophthalmology, and a Professor of Pediatrics and Ophthalmology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, where he is Chief of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Ocular Genetics and Chief of pediatric Genetics.
Dr Levin is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He sits on a number of advisory boards including the Pediatric Glaucoma and Cataract Family Association. He is also a member of numerous professional organizations including the International Society of Genetic Eye Disease and Retinoblastoma (ISGEDR), on whose Executive Committee he serves..
Before joining the University of Rochester , Dr Levin worked as the Chief of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Ocular Genetics at Wills Eye Hospital. He was the co-founder and co-director of the Ocular Genetics Programme at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children prior to starting the Ocular Genetics Program at Wills.
In addition to his work as a Pediatric Ophthalmologist, Dr Levin has also trained as a pediatrician and holds a MHSc in bioethics from the University of Toronto.
His work has been recognised extensively and includes the Claud Worth Silver Medal, Al Biglan Medal in Pediatric Ophthalmology, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus to name a few.
Linda Reis, MS, CGC
Linda is a certified genetic counselor and the program manager under Dr. Semina in the Human Developmental Genetics Laboratory at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She oversees research into the genetic causes of eye conditions affecting children and young adults and has spent the past 16 years working with families affected by these conditions.
Elena Semina, PhD
Dr Semina is Professor and Chair of Division of Developmental Biology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms behind developmental ocular conditions such as Axenfeld-Rieger Syndrome and glaucoma, through the identification of causative mutations and genes. She has a long-standing interest in ARS – her research began with identification of the PITX2 gene as the cause of Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome in 1996 and she has continued to focus on this condition throughout her career.
