Events

"Autoimmune Retinopathy: Tackling the Challenges in Diagnosis and Treatment"   For the December first grand rounds we are honored to host Lucia Sobrin, MD, MPH. Dr. Lucia Sobrin is a full-time clinician scientist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and the Charles Edward Whitten Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.  She also serves as Director of the Morse Laser Center and Associate Chief for Data Science at the Infirmary. After obtaining her medical degree from the University Miami School of Medicine, Dr. Sobrin completed her ophthalmology residency training at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. She then completed a medical and surgical retina fellowship at Mass. Eye and Ear followed by a uveitis and ocular immunology fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye Research and Surgery Institute. In 2006, she became one of the Department's first Harvard Vision Clinical Scientist Research Program (K12) recipients and later received her Master of Public Health Degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Sobrin’s clinical practice focuses on posterior segment uveitis, autoimmune retinopathy and immunomodulatory therapy to treat these diseases.  Her clinical research has focused on increasing our understanding of the role of anti-retinal antibody testing in diagnosing autoimmune retinopathy and on treatment outcomes for this disease. She has led studies using large administrative health care claims databases to identify risk factors for uveitis, with a particular focus on the role of Vitamin D in uveitis. With regards to research in the field of retina, Dr. Sobrin is particularly interested in elucidating how genetics influence both risk for disease development and response to common intravitreal medications for retinal diseases. She has led a multi-ethnic genome-wide association study of diabetic retinopathy and currently leads a study of the genetics of diabetic retinopathy in South India, both funded by the NIH. She leads two NIH-funded pharmacogenetic studies which aim to understand how genetics might influence both response to therapy and side effects from medications injected into the vitreous. In 2011, she was honored with the ARVO/Alcon Early Career Clinician Scientist Research Award. In 2015, she was honored with the Alcon Research Institute Young Investigator Award.  Dr. Sobrin shares her knowledge of uveitis and retinal diseases with retina and uveitis fellows as well as ophthalmology residents.  She received the Clinical Teacher of the Year Award from the ophthalmology residents in 2016, the Harvard Ophthalmology Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2019, and the Women in Ophthalmology Mentorship Award in 2020.  She also serves as the Chair of the Genetics Committee for the DRCR Retina Network, a national collaborative effort for the execution of clinical trials for diabetic retinopathy.