Meet Our Team
Sun Young Lee
M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Physiology & Neuroscience
Principle Investigator
MD Pusan National University, S. Korea
PhD University of Ulsan, S. Korea
Intern/Ophthalmology Resident/Surgical Retina Fellowship Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan, S. Korea
Post doctoral Johns Hopkins University, USA
Intern/Ophthalmology Resident University of Southern California, USA
Surgical Retina Fellowship University of Iowa, USA
Dimitri received his medical degree from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece in 2018. He started his post-doc fellowship in 2020 and is pursuing a career in Ophthalmology.
Mahrou received her Ph.D in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition from the University of Nebraska Lincoln, USA. She joined the University of California, San Diego as post-doctoral fellow in 2020. She started her postdoctoral research position in Dr. Lee’s lab in 2024.
Clarisa Marie Bloemhof
M.D. Candidate
Medical Student Research Assistant
Clarisa received her BS in Public Health Sciences and BA in Economics from UC Irvine and worked as an ophthalmic technician, which piqued her interest in the field. Currently, she is a third-year medical student at the California University of Science and Medicine.
Justin recently graduated from the University of Southern California with a major in Neuroscience and a minor in Health Care Studies. He is on a pre-medical track and is interested in pursuing ophthalmology in the future.
​Susan is a second-year medical student at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She received her B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Musical Studies of the French horn from USC. She is working towards a career in ophthalmology.
Lab Alumni
John Surbeck
Medical Student
Project: Increased Glial Fibrillary Acid Protein and Vimentin in Vitreous Fluid as a Biomarker for Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy
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Austin LaGrow
Medical Student
Project: Endophthalmitis After Transconjunctival Pars Plana Vitrectomy: A 6-year Experience Without Prophylactic Intraoperative Subconjunctival Antibiotics
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Cynthia McClard
Ophthalmology Resident
Project: Utility of No-Charge Panel Genetic Testing for Inherited Retinal Diseases in a Real-World Clinical Setting
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Arjun Nanda
Medical Student
Project: Fiji-Assisted Automatic Quantitative Volumetric Analysis of Choroidal Neovascularization in a Laser-Induced Choroidal Neovascularization Mouse Model
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Gopa Kumar Gopinadhan Nair
Research Associate
Projects: Proteomic Insight into the Role of Exosomes in Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy Development, Intraocular RGD-Engineered Exosomes and Active Targeting of Choroidal Neovascularization (CNV), and more
Our Collaborators
In order to successfully carry out our experiments and analysis, we partner with various laboratories in colleges and institutions across the United States.
Funding
Our research would not be possible without our grants and donors. We greatly appreciate their support in allowing us to further the field of retinal ophthalmology.
National Eye Institute
Alcon Research Institute