Demetrios Vavvas, MD, PhD, Co-Director of the Ocular Regenerative Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School
As a clinician scientist, Dr. Vavvas is a full-time member of the Mass. Eye and Ear Retina Service and has a highly productive translational research laboratory. His clinical interests focus on diabetic retinopathy, ocular tumors, and the “dry” form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Based on his involvement with several clinical studies, Dr. Vavvas has completed a physician-sponsored Investigational New Drug (IND) approved phase I-II study for dry AMD using high dose Atorvastatin, showing reversal of high risk features without progression to atrophy or neovascular AMD.
With his AMDF Breakthrough Award he seeks to reclassify AMD into definable subtypes: “This study has the potential to revolutionize the field and will allow us to better understand the disease subtypes that exist within the broader classification of AMD. This will have far-reaching implications for improving the diagnosis of AMD and will lead to the development of more customized treatments for patients, now and in the future.”