Malik Y. Kahook, MD is Professor of Ophthalmology and The Slater Family Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is Vice Chair of Translational Research and serves as chief of the glaucoma service and co-director of the glaucoma fellowship at the UCHealth Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center. Dr. Kahook has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts, abstracts, and book chapters and is editor of Essentials of Glaucoma Surgery; MIGS: Advances in Glaucoma Surgery; and the seminal textbook of glaucoma Chandler and Grant’s Glaucoma. He is Editor-in-Chief of the open access wiki-based glaucoma educational platform Kahook’s Essentials of Glaucoma Therapy (www.KEOGT.com). Dr. Kahook has received funding from the National Eye Institute, Foundations and Industry over the past 14 years. He was awarded an American Glaucoma Society Clinician-Scientist Fellowship Award in 2007 as well as the American Glaucoma Society Compliance Grant in 2006 and was named New Inventor of the Year for the University of Colorado in 2009 and Inventor of the Year for 2010. He received the American Glaucoma Society Innovator Award (2020), the American Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement Award in 2011, the American Academy of Ophthalmology Senior Achievement Award in 2017, the American Academy of Ophthalmology Secretariat Award (2014), the Ludwig Von Sallmann Clinician-Scientist Award (ARVO) in 2013 and was ranked second on the 40 under 40 Ophthalmology Power List (2015). Dr. Kahook has served on several editorial boards including the American Journal of Ophthalmology and International Glaucoma Review. He is an active volunteer with Orbis and has been a consultant to the US Food and Drug Administration’s Ophthalmic Device Division since 2008.Dr. Kahook has been active in both basic and clinical research. He and his colleagues were among the first to report the use of anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents for treating neovascular glaucoma, as well as the first to report the use of these agents to modulate blebs after filtration surgery. Dr. Kahook and colleagues explored the effects of anti-VEGF agents on the trabecular meshwork and published a series of papers that explored the potential for intraocular pressure spikes from contaminants in compounded anti-VEGF syringes. His work exploring silicone microbubbles in repackaged bevacizumab shed light on several compounding pharmacy practices, including shipping techniques and freeze thaw cycles that resulted in recommendations to decrease the chance of these potentially harmful contaminants from reaching the patient. Dr. Kahook is widely published in areas ranging from the effects of medication preservatives on the ocular surface to novel imaging techniques with femtosecond lasers, as well as 24-hour intraocular pressure fluctuations and exploration of adherence to medical therapy. His first report with Dr. Robert Noecker on the use of fibrin glue for glaucoma drainage device surgery has been adopted by surgeons globally. Dr. Kahook’s translational research accomplishments have focused on multiple unmet needs, including advanced cataract surgery devices and implants, novel glaucoma therapies, and advanced imaging techniques. He has filed for more than 120 patents with more than 40 patents granted to date. Several of Dr. Kahook’s patents have been licensed by companies including Johnson & Johnson Vision, New World Medical, ShapeTech, Alcon, ClarVista Medical, and SpyGlass Ophthalmics for development and commercialization. Six of his devices are currently in human trials or commercialized for clinical use. ClarVista Medical, acquired by Alcon in 2017, developed an advanced intraocular lens technology platform invented by Dr. Kahook. He is also inventor of the Kahook Dual Blade, which is marketed globally by New World Medical. Dr. Kahook is also inventor of the VERUS Capsulorhexis Device, commercialized by MileHigh Ophthalmics, and the ShapeTech shape memory polymer intraocular lens material, which is licensed by Johnson & Johnson Vision. His inventions have raised more than $100 million for development and commercialization since 2008 and have been used to treat more than 100 thousand patients globally since 2012. After graduating from Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Dr. Kahook completed his residency training at the University of Colorado, Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute in Denver, Colorado, where he was named Chief Resident. He then went on to complete a fellowship in glaucoma with Joel S. Schuman and Robert J. Noecker at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Joel S. Schuman, MD, FACS is the Elaine Langone Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Professor of Neuroscience & Physiology at NYU Langone Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and Professor of Neural Science in the Center for Neural Science at NYU College of Arts & Sciences. He chaired the ophthalmology department at NYU Langone Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine (2016-2020). Prior to arriving at NYU in 2016, he was the Eye and Ear Foundation Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology (2003-2016), the Eye and Ear Institute, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Eye Center, Professor of Bioengineering at the Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, and Founder of the Louis J. Fox Center for Vision Restoration of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh. He was a member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, and University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Schuman is a native of Roslyn, New York; he graduated from Columbia University (AB, 1980) and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine (MD, 1984). Following his internship at New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center (1985), he completed residency training at Medical College of Virginia (1988) and glaucoma fellowship at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (clinical 1989; research 1990), where he was a Heed Fellow. After just over a year on the Harvard faculty, he moved to New England Medical Center, Tufts University, to co-found the New England Eye Center in 1991, where he was Residency Director (1991-1999) and Glaucoma and Cataract Service Chief (1991-2003). In 1998 he became Professor of Ophthalmology, and Vice Chair in 2001.Dr. Schuman and his colleagues were first to identify a molecular marker for human glaucoma, published in Nature Medicine in 2001. Continuously funded by the National Eye Institute as a principal investigator since 1995, he is an inventor of optical coherence tomography, used worldwide for ocular diagnostics. Dr. Schuman has published more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, has authored or edited 8 books, and has contributed more than 80 book chapters. Dr. Schuman is a founding member of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Multidisciplinary Ophthalmic Imaging cross-sectional group, served on the program committee from its founding, and chaired the MOI program committee 2007-2013. He is also a founder and co-chair of ARVO Imaging (formerly ARVO/isie, the International Society for Imaging in the Eye, inaugurated 2002). Dr. Schuman was co-chair of the International Glaucoma Symposium 1998-2007, the world’s largest meeting devoted to glaucoma, which merged with the World Glaucoma Congress in 2007, for which he was Program co-chair 2007-2011. He chaired the Hawaiian Eye meeting glaucoma section 1993-2019.In 2002 he received the Alcon Research Institute Award and the Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize, in 2003 the Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, in 2004 he was elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation, in 2006 he received the ARVO Translational Research Award, and in 2012 the Carnegie Science Center Award, as well as sharing the Champalimaud Award (a 1 million Euro cash prize). He was elected to the American Ophthalmological Society in 2008. In 2011 Dr. Schuman was the Clinician-Scientist Lecturer of the American Glaucoma Society. In 2012 he received the Carnegie Science Center’s Award in Life Sciences. In 2013 he gave the Robert N. Shaffer Lecture at the American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, and received the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 he became a Gold Fellow of ARVO and he received a Special Recognition Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2015. He was elected to the American Association of Physicians and also received the Fight for Sight Physician/Scientist Award in 2016. In 2017 he received the Leslie Dana Gold Medal. In 2018 Dr. Schuman was the American Glaucoma Society Lecturer and received the Fight for Sight Alumni Achievement Award. In 2019 he was given the BrightFocus Scientific Impact Award. He is named in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Medical Sciences Education, America’s Top Doctors, and Best Doctors in America.
