Elliott H Sohn, MD, FASRS, FARVO is the Endowed Chair of Diabetic Retinopathy Research and Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Iowa. His translational research centers on the use of artificial intelligence, genetics and immunology to study neovascular ‘wet’ age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinal disease (particularly neuronal degeneration) and inherited retinal diseases. His surgical expertise is in complex macular holes, epiretinal membranes and retinal detachments. He is a key opinion leader in gene and stem cell therapies, having served as an investigator for numerous gene therapy trials in humans, and develops novel instruments for scaffold-based photoreceptor cell restoration treatment. He was a co-investigator and surgeon for the first FDA approved gene therapy in humans, voretigene neparvovec (Luxturna) for biallelic RPE65 gene mutation causing childhood onset inherited blindness. His collaborative research has been continuously funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), for whom he regularly serves as grant reviewer.

He serves on the ACGME Residency Review Committee for Ophthalmology, is the American Board of Ophthalmology liaison to the Macula Society, and committees for Retina Society, American Society of Retina Specialists, and the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Macula Society’s Young Investigator Award. He has served as Chair of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Retina section of the Annual Meeting Program Committee, Vice Chair for the ACGME RC for Ophthalmology, the University of Iowa Physicians Board as member-at-large, committee member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and Director of Retina Fellowships at the University of Iowa.

He has written or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 10 book chapters. He is on the editorial board of Nature Scientific Reports and the Asia-Pacific Journal of Ophthalmology.