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- 2024 Letter From the Chair
- Tackling vision-restoring eye transplants
- The bionic eye returning vision to the blind
- New offerings in gene and cell therapies
- Providing destination-level care for patients
- The future of innovation
- Inception insights
- Introducing our newest faculty
- Select awards and honors
- A lifelong commitment in ROP
- ROP research for a brighter future
- Unraveling mysteries in ocular oncology
- Beating the odds in Joubert syndrome
- Finding a purpose despite a diagnosis
- Why Give?
- Global trainees make their mark
- Training for tomorrow
A Note From our Chair
The 2024 letter from Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PHD
Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, is the Blumenkranz Smead professor and chair of ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute. Photo credit: Chris Shum Photography
I am sure I say this every year, but 2024 marked the most exciting year to-date at the Byers Eye Institute, as the research and clinical advances we made have once again set a high bar to top in the future.
Our 2024 annual report centers on hope, and the many ways our clinicians, scientists, and staff inspire optimism for the future in our patients, trainees, and peers working toward the same goal of eradicating blindness.
One major way we are inspiring hope is through a recently announced project aiming to make vision-restoring whole eye transplants a reality in the coming years, fueled by a grant of up to $56 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).
Meanwhile, our clinical trials are yielding life-changing results by using the latest research in gene and stem cell therapy and electronic implants for the eye.
One of the achievements I am most excited about, however, is our success in attracting and retaining the best faculty and trainees from every corner of the world and from a wide array of backgrounds that make our research more holistic, and our clinical care more compassionate. Research and experience show us that our successes in this part of our mission will help us reach new heights as we treat patients in the clinic, advance cutting-edge research, and train the great ophthalmologists of tomorrow.
I hope you’ll enjoy learning more about our newest faculty and all the ways we are finding and keeping the newest, most promising talent in the world throughout this annual report.
Of course, we would not be able to do this work without the support of philanthropic donors, many of whom have seen firsthand the impact of our mission to eradicate blindness and preserve sight.
With immense gratitude, I want to honor those donors, colleagues, staff, alumni, patients and community for helping build a department of ophthalmology that we can all take pride in.
Jeffrey L. Goldberg, MD, PhD
Blumenkranz Smead Professor
Chair of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University