Kapil Bharti, PhD

Dr. Kapil Bharti holds a bachelor’s degree in Biophysics from the Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, a master’s degree in biotechnology from the MS Rao University, Baroda, India. He obtained his PhD from J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, graduating summa cum laude. His PhD work involved research in the areas of heat stress, chaperones, and epigenetics. He did his postdoc at the National Institutes of Health, where he published numerous papers in the areas of transcription regulation, pigment cell biology, and developmental biology of the eye. After his postdoc, he joined the National Eye Institute as their first Earl Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator. His lab recently received approval for the first U.S. phase I/IIa trial to test autologous iPSC-derived RPE patch in AMD patients. Using a DoD award his lab has developed a 3D-ocular tissue to model retinal diseases in vitro. His current work as a Senior Investigator and the head of the Ocular and Stem Cell Translational Research Section involves understanding mechanism of retinal degenerative diseases using induced pluripotent stem cell derived eye cells and tissues, and developing cell-based and drug-based therapies for such diseases.