Karl Csaky, M.D., Ph.D.

Chief Executive and Medical Officer
Director, Molecular Ophthalmology Laboratory
T. Boone Pickens Senior Scientist
Clinical Center of Innovation for AMD

Karl Csaky, MD, PhD, is a vitreoretinal specialist serving as the Chief Executive and Medical Officer at the Retina Foundation of the Southwest. Dr. Csaky is the award recipient of the T. Boone Pickens Senior Scientist.

Dr. Csaky’s main area of research is age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in both laboratory and clinical settings. His laboratory is studying the pathogenesis of all forms of AMD. He has more than 25 years of drug development and translational research experience. He has an accomplished history of conducting clinical trials for AMD research.

Dr. Csaky continues to serve as a scientific advisor to large pharmaceutical companies and share his research and treatment innovations with ophthalmologists across the globe.

Previously, Dr. Csaky was an Investigator at the National Eye Institute where he directed the Laboratory of Retinal Diseases and Therapeutics. A Fulbright Scholar, he completed a retina fellowship at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University and a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Csaky received his combined MD, PhD, degrees from the University of Louisville.

Yi-Zhong Wang, Ph.D.

Director, Macular Function Laboratory

Ph.D., Indiana University, 1996

NIH Bibliography: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/yi-zhong.wang.1/bibliography/public/

Research: 

Shape Perception, Perceptual Organization, Aging, Amblyopia and Macular Degeneration

Representative Publications:

Wang, Y.Z., Morale, S. E., Cousins, R., and Birch, E. E. (2009) “Course of development of global hyperacuity over lifespan”, Optom & Vis Sci, Vol. 86 (6), 695-700.

Wang, Y. Z. and Hess, R. F. (2005) “Contributions of local orientation and position features to shape integration”. Vision Research. Vol. 45, 1375-83.

Wang, Y. Z., Wilson, C. E., Locke, K. G. and Edwards, A. O. (2002) “Shape discrimination in age-related macular degeneration”. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. Vol. 43(6), pp.2055-2062.

Wang, Y. Z. (2001) “Effects of aging on shape discrimination”. Optometry and Vision Science, Vol.78 (6), pp.447-454

Wang, Y.Z., Thibos, L.N., and Bradley, A. (1997). “Effects of spherical defocus on detection, resolution, and letter discrimination in the periphery”. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. 38, 2134-2143.

Eileen Birch, Ph.D.

Director, Crystal Charity Ball Pediatric Vision Laboratory

Ph.D., University of California, 1979
Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1980-1982

NIH Bibliography: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/eileen.birch.1/bibliography/public/

Research: 

Esotropia, Amblyopia, Hyperopia, Pediatric Cataracts, Retinopathy of Prematurity, Vision Screening, Infant Nutrition

Representative Publications:

Birch EE, Gwiazda J, and Held R. Stereoacuity development for crossed and uncrossed disparities in human infants. Vision Research, 1982; 22:507-13.

Birch EE, Stager DR, and Wright WW. Grating acuity development following early surgery for congenital unilateral cataract. Archives of Ophthalmology, 1986; 104:1783-7.

Birch EE and Spencer R. Visual outcome in infants with cicatricial retinopathy of prematurity. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 1990; 32:174-179.

Birch EE and Stager DR. The critical period for surgical treatment of dense congenital unilateral cataract. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science; 1996, 37: 1532-8.

Birch E, Fawcett S, Stager Sr. D. Why does early surgical alignment improve stereoacuity outcomes in infantile esotropia. Journal of AAPOS, 2000, 4: 10-4.

Birch E, Williams C, Drover J, Fu V, Cheng C, Northstone K, Courage M, Adams R. Randot Preschool Stereoacuity Test: Normative data and validity. Journal of AAPOS, 2008, 12: 23-6.

Birch E, Carlson S, Hoffman D, Fitzgerald-Gustafson K, Fu V, Drover J, Castañeda Y, Minns L, Wheaton D, Mundy D, Marunycz J, Diersen-Schade D. The DIAMOND study: A double masked, randomized controlled clinical trial of the maturation of infant visual acuity as a function of the dietary level of docosahexaenoic acid. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2010, 91: 848-59.

Birch EE. Amblyopia and binocular vision. Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, 2013; 33: 67-84.

Jost R, Yanni S, Beauchamp CL, Stager Sr DR, Stager Jr D, Dao L, Birch EE. Beyond screening for risk factors: objective detection of strabismus and amblyopia. JAMA Ophthalmology, 2014; 132:814-20.

Birch EE, Li SL, Jost RM, Morale SE, Stager Jr D, Dao L, Stager Sr DR. Binocular iPad treatment for amblyopia in preschool children. Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus, 2015; 19:6-11.

Birch EE, Jost RM, De La Cruz A, Kelly KR, Beauchamp CL, Dao L, Stager Jr D, Leffler JN. Binocular amblyopia treatment with contrast re-balanced movies. Journal of AAPOS, 2019;23:160.e1-5.

Wang J, Xu H, Morale SE, Jost RM, Leske DA, Holmes JM, Birch EE. Improved monitoring of patching adherence using a microsensor and Eye Patching Assistant. Journal of AAPOS, 2020;24:96.e1-7.

Birch EE, Castañeda YS, Cheng-Patel CS, Morale SE, Kelly KR, Jost RM, Hudgins LA, Leske DA, Holmes JM. Associations of eye-related quality of life (ER-QOL), vision, visuomotor function, and self-perception in children with strabismus and anisometropia. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 2020; 61(11):22.

Morale SE, Jost RM, Hunter JS, Weakley DR, Birch EE. Normative values, testability, and validity for a new preferential looking stereoacuity test. Binocular Vision & Ocular Motility, 2021, 71: 29-34.

Simmons M, Wang J, Leffler JN, Li S, Morale SE, de la Cruz A, Birch EE. Longitudinal development of refractive error and visual acuity in children treated with intravitreal bevacizumab or laser for retinopathy of prematurity. Translational Vision Science & Technology, April 2021, doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.10.4.14.

David Birch, Ph.D.

Director, Rose-Silverthorne Retinal Degenerations Laboratory

Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1978

NIH Bibliography: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/david.birch.1/bibliography/public/

Research: 

Genetic Eye Diseases, Macular Degeneration, Electrophysiology, Visual Function Testing

Representative Publications:

Birch DG and Sandberg MA. Psychophysical studies of cone optical bandwidth in patients with retinitis pigmentosa. Vision Res, 1982; 22:1113-1117.

Birch DG and Anderson JL. Rod visual fields in cone-rod degeneration: comparisons to retinitis pigmentosa. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 1990; 31:2288-2299.

Birch DG and Anderson JL. Standardized full-field ERGs: normal values and their variation with age. Arch Ophthal, 1992; 110:1571-1576.

Birch DG, Hood DC, Nusinowitz S, and Pepperberg DR. Abnormal activation and inactivation of rod transduction in patients with autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa and the pro-23-his mutation. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 1995; 36:1603-1614.

Birch DG, Travis GH, Locke KG, Hood DC. Rod ERGs in mice and humans with putative null mutations in the RDS Gene. Vision Science and Its Applications, Vol. 1, OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Society of America, Washington, D.C.) 1997; 262-265.

Birch DG, Anderson JL, and Fish GE. Yearly rates of rod and cone functional loss in retinitis pigmentosa and cone-rod degeneration. Ophthalmol, 1999; 106:258-268.

Birch DG, Yang R-B, Robinson SW, Garbers DL. Loss of cone and reduction in rod ERG responses in the guanylyl cyclase-E (GC-E) deficient mouse. Degenerative Disease of the Retina (R. Anderson, J. Hollyfield, and M. LaVail, editors), Plenum, New York, 1999; 67-80.

Birch DG, Peters AY, Locke KL, Spencer R, Megarity CF, Travis GH. Visual function in patients with cone-rod dystrophy (CRD) associated with mutations in the ABCA4 (ABCR) gene. Exp Eye Res, 2001; 73:877-886. PMID: 11846518.

Birch DG. A randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa. Retina, 2005; 25:S52-S54. PMID: 16374336.

Birch DG, Wen Y, Locke KI, Hood DC. Rod sensitivity, cone sensitivity and photoreceptor layer thickness in retinal degenerative diseases. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 2011; 52(10): 7141-7. Sept 9, 2011 [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 21810977.

Birch DG, Locke KG, Wen Y, Locke KI, Hoffman DR, Hood DC. Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography measures of outer segment layer progression in patients with x-linked retinitis pigmentosa. JAMA Ophthalmol, 2013, 131(9): 1143-1150. July 4. PMID: 23828615 PMCID: PMC4111937.

Birch DG, Weleber RG, Duncan J, Jaffe GL, Tao W, Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor Retinitis Pigmentosa Study Groups. Randomized trial of ciliary neurotrophic factor delivered by encapsulated cell intraocular implants for retinitis pigmentosa. Amer J Ophthalmol, 2013, 156(2): 283-292. May 10 (Epub ahead of print). PMID: 23668681, PMCID: PMC4111936.

Birch DG, Bernstein PS, Ianaconne A, Pennesi ME, Lam BL, Heckenlively J, Csaky K, Hartnett ME, Winthrop KL, Jayasundera T, Hughbanks-Wheaton DK, Warner J, Yang P, Fish GE, Teske MP, Sklaver NL, Erker L, Chegarnov E, Smith T, Wahle A, VanVeldhuisen PC, McCormack J, Lindblad R, Bramer S, Zilliox P, Francis PJ, Weleber RG. Effect of Oral Valproic Acid vs Placebo for Vision Loss in Patients with Autosomal Dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa: A Randomized Phase II Multicenter Placebo-Controlled Trial. JAMA Ophthalmology 2018 Aug 1; 136(8):849-856.

Bennett LD, Klein M, John FT, Radojevic B, Jones, K, Birch DG. Disease progression in patients with autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa due to a mutation in Inosine Monophosphate Dehydrogenase (IMPDH1). Transl Vis Sci & Tech. 2020; 9(5):14. PMID: 32821486.

Birch DG, Cheng P, Duncan JL, Ayala AR, Maguire MG, Audo I, Cheetham JK, Durham TA, Fahim AT, Ferris FL, Heon E, Huckfeldt RM, Iannaccone A, Khan NW, Lad EM, Michaelides M, Pennesi ME, Stingl K, Vincent A, Weng CY, for the Foundation Fighting Blindness Consortium Investigator Group. The Rush2A Study: Best-corrected visual acuity, full-field electroretinography amplitudes and full-field stimulus thresholds at baseline. Transl Vis Sci & Tech. 2020;9(11):9. PMID: 32441177.

Srinivasa R. Sripathi, Ph.D.

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)
Stem Cell Laboratory

Dr. Sripathi is the Director of the newly launched Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Stem Cell Laboratory, where he will lead with science to provide innovative sight restoration solutions.

Dr. Sripathi is focused on the development and translation of stem cell-based therapies for treating AMD. His work involves studying stem cells grown from a blood sample in patients with AMD.

Dr. Sripathi completed his doctorate degree in Retina Biochemistry and Proteomics in 2013 at Michigan Technological University. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and has been training under Donald J. Zack, MD, PhD for a decade at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in the Department of Ophthalmology. Previously, Dr. Sripathi served as Research Associate at the Department of Ophthalmology, Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Sripathi has successfully secured several prestigious grants to help advance and accelerate his research, including the BrightFocus Foundation’s New Investigator Grant in AMD Research. His passion to save vision began as a young child in India where he helped vision-impaired children and adults read braille.