Bio
Dr. Mehrnoosh Saghizadeh Ghiam is Associte professor of Biomedical Sciences and Regenrative Medicine Institute at Cedars-Siani Medical Center and Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA School of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. degrees from UCLA and completed her postdoctoral training in the Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical center, where she joined faculty position as Assistant Professor in 2012. The main focus of her research is to identify specific molecular defects in diabetic corneas, with the goal of restoring stem cell function. Her lab is interested in defining the roles of microRNAs and extracellular vesicles in stem cell maintenance and activation in the limbal stem cell niche and their therapeutic potential for treatment of corneal injuries and diabetic abnormalities. Her research has been funded by NIH since 2012 as a principal investigator/co-investigator. she is an editorial board member and ad-hoc reviewer of several scientific journals and member of several international vision research societies. She has been serving on numerous NIH Study Sections and has been a grant reviewer for various agencies in U.S., U.K., Poland and Ireland.

Talk
Dr. Rajiv Mohan is a Curators’ Distinguished Professor and Ruth M Kraeuchi Endowed Chair of Ophthalmology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA. Additionally, he holds a Senior Research Career Scientist position at the US Department of Veterans Affair’s Harry S. Truman Medical Center Columbia, Missouri. Dr. Mohan’s lab is focused on studying mechanisms causing corneal blindness and developing novel gene therapies and ophthalmic formulations to prevent and treat vision loss in humans and companion/service animals using state-of-the-art multimodal 2D/3D in vivo eye imaging, molecular techniques, preclinical in vivo animals (rodent, rabbit, and pig) and human in vitro and ex vivo organ culture models. Dr. Mohan’s research program is funded through multiple NIH, VA, and foundation grants. He has coauthored >180 peer-reviewed journal articles, 12 book chapters, and >400 meeting abstracts as well as received many prestigious national/international awards. Dr. Mohan routinely serves in various grant review panels as a member, chair or co-chair of the USA, Europe, and Asia, in Editorial Board of 10 journals, and international vision research societies (ARVO, ISER, WOC etc.) at different capacities. He has co-organized many national and international eye research meetings/conferences, chaired/co-chaired scientific sessions, and delivered >120 invited lectures in 30+ countries. In 2023, for the second consecutive year, Dr. Mohan was named among “World’s Top 2% of Scientists” by the Elsevier science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators.

Bio
Dr. Maria Grant, M.D., FARVO, is the Eivor and Alston Callahan Endowed Chair and Professor of Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science. Dr. Grant’s laboratory is interested in understanding the role of hematopoietic cells and vascular wall derived progenitor cells in vascular repair in aging and diabetes. Dr. Grant’s research focuses on understanding the biology of hematopoietic progenitor cell emergence, maintenance, and their regenerative properties. More recently she has examined the role of the renin angiotensin system in the intestine and how that impacts glucose homeostasis and immune function in aging and diabetes. She has served as principle/co-investigator on more than forty extramural foundation/NIH grants that have led to more than 270 peer reviewed publications.

Bio
Dr. Alexander Ljubimov is an internationally recognized eye and cancer researcher, with over 130 peer-reviewed papers, reviews, and book chapters published. He is Director of Regenerative Institute Eye Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Neurosurgery, and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His research includes innovative gene and epigenetic therapy to restore normal stem cell functions in diabetic corneas, development of new targeted nanotherapeutics for cancer and eye diseases and making corneal cells from induced pluripotent stem cells. Dr. Ljubimov's research has been funded by NIH since 1995 with 3 current R01 grants. He has been serving on numerous NIH Study Sections, and has been a grant reviewer for various agencies in U.S., U.K., France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, and the Netherlands. Dr. Ljubimov is an Editorial Board member of 16 scientific journals including Stem Cells Translational Medicine, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, Experimental Eye Research, Molecular Vision, Experimental Biology and Medicine, PLoS One, Cells, Scientific Reports, and Ocular Surface. He is Gold Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and Overseas Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (U.K.). Dr. Ljubimov received his summa cum laude M.S. degree from Moscow State University (Russia), and his Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees from the Russian Cancer Research Center. He completed postdoctoral training in the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon (France). He has a background in cancer research and is working on diabetic eye disease since 1993.