Dr. Brooks is Chief of the Unit of Genetic and Developmental Eye Disease at the National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and serves as a senior ophthalmic consultant in NIH’s Undiagnosed Diseases Program. Dr. Brooks trained in medical genetics at the National Human Genome Research Institute and is one of few physicians dual-board certified in ophthalmology and clinical genetics. He is the founding Director of the National Ophthalmic Disease Genotyping Network, an online database of genes that contribute to inherited eye diseases. Dr. Brooks has a special interest in genetic ophthalmic disorders affecting children and directs the Ophthalmic Genetics Clinic at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Dumitrescu is a Pediatric Ophthalmology and Pediatric Inherited Eye Diseases specialist at the University of Iowa. She is currently involved in clinical and research studies aimed at expanding clinical/phenotypical understanding of diseases based on their molecular genetic diagnosis and using clinical and molecular genetic strategies, as well as novel studies of electrophysiology and imaging, to understand and potentially treat vision loss associated with inherited eye disorders. As a clinician, pediatric ophthalmic surgeon and electrophysiologist, she combines surgical expertise with advanced training to provide patients and families with diagnosis, treatment, and counseling in rare eye disorders. Dr. Dumitrescu is the chair of the AAPOS Genetic Eye Disease Committee, which educates pediatric ophthalmologists about current genetic testing and treatment advances available for patients.

Dr. Issa is a retinal specialist and Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital. Before moving to Oxford, he held a Professorship in Degenerative Retinal Diseases at the University of Bonn, Germany. He received his PhD from the University Oxford for his work on the retinal phenotype of Abca4-related retinopathy and therapeutic strategies for Stargardt disease. His current research is focused on novel treatments for inherited retinal dystrophies and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), genotype-phenotype correlations, and retinal imaging.

Dr. Scholl is Founder and Director of the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel in Switzerland, together with Botond Roska, MD, and is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Basel. Dr. Scholl received his medical degree from the University of Tübingen in Germany before completing a residency in Ophthalmology at the University Eye Hospital in Tübingen and a clinical research fellowship in Medical Retinal Disease at Moorfields Eye Hospital and the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology in London, United Kingdom. From 2010 until 206, he was Professor of Ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, where he headed the Retinal Degeneration Clinic and the Visual Neurophysiology Service of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Scholl has received numerous awards including the European Vision Award in 2008, the Wynn-Gund Translational Research Award by the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the Macular Degeneration Research Award by the American Health Assistance Foundation in 2010, the Visionary Award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the ARVO Foundation/Pfizer Ophthalmics Carl Camras Translational Research Award in 2014, and the President’s Award from the American Society of Retina Specialists in 2015, the Research Award Retina 2017 of the German Ophthalmic Surgeons, the Alfred Vogt Award in 2019 and the Paul Henkind Award & Lecture of the Macula Society in 2020.

Dr. Strauss is an Inherited Retinal Dystrophies specialist at the Medical University Graz and Kepler University Clinic Linz, Austria, where he leads the affiliated center in the European Reference Network for orphan diseases. Dr. Strauss serves as the clinical study manager of the ProgStar study.

Dr. Sunness is the Medical Director of the Hoover Low Vision Rehabilitation Services at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, specializing in low vision rehabilitation, retinal disease, and clinical electrophysiology and visual function testing. She is an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and former faculty of Wilmer Eye Hospital, during which time she directed a large NIH-funded study of advanced dry age-related macular degeneration. Dr. Sunness was the recipient of the 2011 Gass Medal from the Macula Society and the 2014 Envision Award for Low Vision Research. She served on the Vision Rehab committee of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and is a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Maryland MVA, and of the Scientific Advisory Board of Foundation Fighting Blindness.

Dr. Sullivan is a Senior Scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute and Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sullivan is the Founder, recent President, and current Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS), a non-profit organization tasked to advance the research, literacy, and educational aspects of the scientific field of the tear film and ocular surface throughout the world. An advocate of early-stage life sciences companies, Dr. Sullivan actively participates in due diligence support for preclinical and clinical acquisitions in the dry eye space.