Baojian Fan, MD, PhD

Baojian Fan, an instructor in ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, has dedicated his academic career to understanding the genetic basis of glaucoma and other eye disorders. He has fellowship training in ophthalmology and in statistical genetics. He is an editorial board member of several ophthalmology journals, and served on the Members-in-Training Committee of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

Dr. Fan’s research so far has yielded 102 publications. His early research resulted in the identification of two new genetic loci on chromosomes 5 (GLC1M) and 15 (GLC1N) that harbor genes predisposing carriers to juvenile-onset glaucoma. This BrightFocus-supported project holds great promise to find at least one gene responsible for pigment dispersion syndrome and pigmentary glaucoma. Moreover, Dr. Fan is currently involved in identifying genetic loci for ocular quantitative traits using South Indian consanguineous pedigrees. He is also involved in analysis of exome data for several different forms of glaucoma. Dr. Fan’s research on glaucoma genetics will provide critical information regarding the biology of the disease, as well as providing the basis for early diagnosis and new treatment.