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:

  • Nicola Allen, PhD, Salk Institute
  • 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
  • Todd Cohen, PhD, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • 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
  • Nicola Hamilton-Whitaker, PhD, King’s College London
  • 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

Committee Members (cont.)

  • Edward Koo, MD, University of California, San Diego
  • Daniel Lee, PhD, University of Kentucky
  • 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
  • Jessica Rexach, MD, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles
  • 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
MDR Scientific Review Committee 2026 photo.

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
  • 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)
  • Ana Chucair-Elliot, PhD, The University Of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
  • Charles DeBoer, MD, Stanford University
  • Sarah Doyle, PhD, Trinity College (Ireland)
  • Mark Emerson, PhD, The City College of New York, CUNY
  • Steven J. Fliesler, PhD, University at Buffalo, Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
  • Joelle Hallak, PhD, University of Illinois
  • Daniel Hass, PhD, University of Washington

Committee Members (cont.)

  • 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
  • Goldis Malek, PhD, Duke University
  • Robert Mullins, PhD, University of Iowa
  • Martha Neuringer, PhD, Oregon Health & Science University
  • Patsy Nishina, PhD, The Jackson Laboratory
  • Neal Peachey, PhD, Cleveland Clinic
  • 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
NGR Scientific Review Committee 2026 group photo.

National Glaucoma Research Scientific Review Committee

Co-Chairs:

  • Adriana Di Polo, PhD, University of Montreal (Canada)
  • C. Ross Ethier, PhD, Emory Eye Center, Emory School of Medicine
  • Darrell WuDunn, MD, PhD, University of Florida College of Medicine

Committee Members:

  • Dong Feng Chen, PhD, Harvard Medical School
  • Abbot F. Clark, PhD, University of North Texas
  • Crawford Downs, PhD, University of Alabama
  • Michael Fautsch, PhD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester
  • Brad Fortune, OD, PhD, Devers Eye Institute
  • 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
  • Richard Libby, PhD, University of Rochester
  • Paloma Liton, PhD, Duke University
  • Prabhavathi Maddineni, PhD,
  • Milica Margeta, MD, PhD, Massachusetts Eye and Ear
  • Nicholas Marsh-Armstrong, PhD, University of California, Davis
  • Colleen McDowell, PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Committee Members (cont.)

  • 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
  • John C. Morrison, MD, Oregon Health & Science University
  • Robert W. Nickells, PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • Yvonne Ou, MD, University of California, San Francisco
  • Gavin Roddy, MD, PhD, Mayo Clinic
  • Babak Naghizadeh Safa, PhD, University of South Florida
  • Rebecca Sappington, PhD, Wake Forest University
  • Ian Sigal, PhD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
  • Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk, PhD, University of California, Irvine
  • W. Daniel Stamer, PhD, Duke University
  • James N. Ver Hoeve, PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • Benjamin Xu, MD, PhD, University of Southern California
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