Leo A. Kim, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, the Schepens Eye Research Institute, Harvard Medical School
Research: “Role of Runx1 in Retinopathy of Prematurity”
Research
“Role of Runx1 in Retinopathy of Prematurity”Our lab is primarily interested in understanding the vascular biology of a retinal vascular disorders. Specifically, our lab is interested in the process of aberrant angiogenesis and understanding how this process affects diseases including retinopathy of prematurity, diabetic retinopathy, wet age-related macular degeneration, and vascular occlusions. Our lab recently identified Runx1 to be a key mediator of pathologic angiogenesis using fibrovascular membranes from patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Dr. Kim is now attempting to expand the potential role of Runx1 into other diseases such as retinopathy of prematurity. Understanding this fundamental disease mechanism may shed new light unto potential therapeutic targets to regulate aberrant angiogenesis within the eye and prevent a wide array of sight threatening conditions. Thus, using a combination of both clinical insights and basic scientific techniques, Dr. Kim’s lab attempts to elucidate our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of retinal vascular disease. As a former NIH sponsored K12 recipient, Dr. Kim other research interests include the regulated cell death mechanisms of retinal toxicities as well as computational modeling of oxygen distribution in age-related macular degeneration.
