World-Class Scientific Review Committees

Our funding philosophy is to follow the most innovative and promising ideas that will lead to a cure for diseases of mind and sight.

Each year, our Scientific Review Committees, composed of renowned leaders in their fields, recommend new research opportunities for BrightFocus to advance our goal of defeating Alzheimer’s, macular degeneration, and glaucoma.

The following experts have served on each committee within the last five years:

Members of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Scientific Review Committee.

Alzheimer's Disease Research Scientific Review Committee

Co-Chairs:

  • David M. Holtzman, MD, Washington University School of Medicine
  • Hui Zheng, PhD, Baylor College of Medicine

Committee Members:

  • Beau Ances, MD, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine
  • Katrin Andreasson, PhD, Stanford University
  • Rhoda Au, PhD, Boston University School of Medicine
  • David R. Borchelt, PhD, University of Florida
  • Guojun Bu, PhD, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  • Alice Chen-Plotkin, MD, University of Pennsylvania
  • Laura Cox, PhD, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
  • Carlos Cruchaga, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine
  • Mark Ebbert, PhD, University of Kentucky
  • Steven Estus, PhD, University of Kentucky
  • Douglas Galasko, MD, University of California, San Diego
  • David Gate, PhD, Northwestern University
  • Charles G. Glabe, PhD, University of California, Irvine
  • Todd E. Golde, MD, PhD, Emory University
  • John Hardy, PhD, FMedSci, FRS, University College London (UK)
  • Julie Harris, PhD, Allen Institute
  • S. Abid Hussaini, PhD, Columbia University
  • Joanna Jankowsky, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis
  • Lance Johnson, PhD, University of Kentucky
  • Martin Kampmann, PhD, University of California, San Francisco
  • Aimee Kao, MD, PhD, University of California, San Francisco
  • Ksenia Kastanenka, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • John “Keoni” Kauwe, PhD, Brigham Young University–Hawaii

Committee Members (cont.)

  • Edward Koo, MD, University of California, San Diego
  • Cynthia A. Lemere, PhD, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
  • Allan I. Levey, MD, PhD, Emory University
  • Yueming Li, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  • Brendan P. Lucey, MD, Washington University School of Medicine
  • Shannon Macauley-Rambach, PhD, University of Kentucky
  • Edoardo Marcora, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
  • John M. Olichney, MD, University of California, Davis
  • Matthew Rowan, PhD, Emory University
  • David P. Salmon, PhD, University of California, San Diego
  • Melanie Samuel, PhD, Baylor College of Medicine
  • Gerard Schellenberg, PhD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
  • Aristeidis Sotiras, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine
  • Russell Swerdlow, MD, University of Kansas Medical Center
  • Malu Tansey, PhD, Indiana University
  • Julia TCW, PhD, Boston University
  • Gopal Thinakaran, PhD, University of South Florida
  • Robert Vassar, PhD, Northwestern University
  • Cheryl Wellington, PhD, University of British Columbia
  • Donna Wilcock, PhD, Indiana University School of Medicine
  • Benjamin Wolozin, MD, PhD, Boston University
  • Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, Stanford Medicine
  • Riqiang Yan, PhD, University of Connecticut School of Medicine
  • Tracy Young-Pearse, PhD, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School
  • Xiongwei Zhu, PhD, Case Western Reserve University
  • Na Zhao, MD, PhD, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville
Group photo of Macular Degeneration Research committee members.

Macular Degeneration Research Scientific Review Committee

Chair:

  • Michael B. Gorin MD, PhD, University of California Los Angeles

Committee Members:

  • Bela Anand-Apte, PhD, Cleveland Clinic Foundation
  • Robert E. Anderson, MD, PhD, Dean McGee Eye Institute
  • John D. Ash, PhD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
  • Catherine Bowes Rickman, PhD, Duke University
  • Kristen Bowles-Johnson, OD, PhD, Indiana University
  • Milam Brantley Jr., MD, PhD, Vanderbilt University 
  • Valeria Canto-Soler, PhD, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
  • Karl Csaky, MD, PhD, Retina Foundation of the Southwest
  • Itay Chowers, MD, Hadassah Medical Center (Israel)
  • Sarah Doyle, PhD, Trinity College (Ireland)
  • Steven J. Fliesler, PhD, University at Buffalo, Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
  • Joelle Hallak, PhD, University of Illinois
  • James Handa, MD, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University
  • Daniel Hass, PhD, University of Washington

Committee Members (cont.)

  • Joe G. Hollyfield, PhD, Cleveland Clinic Foundation
  • Yali Jia, PhD, Oregon Health & Science University
  • Sangeetha Kandoi, PhD, Johns Hopkins University
  • Aparna Lakkaraju, PhD, University of California, San Francisco
  • Theodore Leng, PhD, Stanford Medicine
  • Alfred S. Lewin, PhD, University of Florida
  • Abdel Majdoubi, PhD, Yale University
  • Robert Mullins, PhD, University of Iowa
  • Martha Neuringer, PhD, Oregon Health & Science University
  • Nancy J. Philp, PhD, Thomas Jefferson University
  • Przemyslaw (Mike) Sapieha, PhD, University of Montreal (Canada)
  • Florian Sennlaub, MD, PhD, Institut De La Vision (France)
  • Lois Smith, MD, PhD, Boston Children’s Hospital
  • Karl Wahlin, PhD, University of California, San Diego
Group photo of National Glaucoma Research committee members.

National Glaucoma Research Scientific Review Committee

Co-Chairs:

  • Adriana Di Polo, PhD, University of Montreal (Canada)
  • John C. Morrison, MD, Oregon Health & Science University

Committee Members: 

  • Dong Feng Chen, PhD, Harvard Medical School
  • Abbot F. Clark, PhD, University of North Texas
  • Crawford Downs, PhD, University of Alabama
  • C. Ross Ethier, PhD, Emory Eye Center, Emory School of Medicine
  • Michael Fautsch, PhD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester
  • Brad Fortune, OD, PhD, Devers Eye Institute
  • Thomas F. Freddo, OD, PhD, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
  • Kimberly Gokoffski, MD, University of Southern California
  • Michael Hauser, PhD, Duke University
  • Yi Hua, PhD, University of Mississippi 
  • Denise Inman, PhD, University of North Texas
  • Tatjana Jakobs, MD, Harvard Medical School
  • Hari Jayaram, PhD, Moorfields Eye Hospital
  • Kate Keller, PhD, Oregon Health & Science University
  • Rachel Kuchtey, MD, PhD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Committee Members (cont.)

  • Richard Libby, PhD, University of Rochester
  • Paloma Liton, PhD, Duke University
  • Prabhavathi Maddineni, PhD, University of Missouri-Columbia 
  • Nicholas Marsh-Armstrong, PhD, University of California, Davis
  • Colleen McDowell, PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • Stuart J. McKinnon, MD, PhD, Duke University
  • Gillian McLellan, BVMS, PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • Jason Meyer, PhD, Indiana University
  • James Morgan, MA DPhil BM BCH FRCOphth, Cardiff University
  • Robert W. Nickells, PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • Yvonne Ou, MD, University of California, San Francisco
  • Babak Naghizadeh Safa, PhD, University of South Florida
  • Rebecca Sappington, PhD, Wake Forest University
  • Ian Sigal, PhD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
  • W. Daniel Stamer, PhD, Duke University
  • James N. Ver Hoeve, PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • Darrell WuDunn, MD, PhD, University of Florida College of Medicine
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