Ophthalmology
Showing 1-50 of 114 Results
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Houri Esmaeilkhanian
Visiting Instructor, Ophthalmology Research/Clinical Trials
BioDr. Esmaeilkhanian is an accomplished medical doctor who graduated from Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS) in 2018. Her passion for ophthalmology ignited during her medical studies, leading her to a focused research career in this field. After earning her degree, she dedicated her efforts to serving underprivileged communities while continuing her research at the Eye and Ear Research Institute of IUMS. In 2021, she advanced to the Doheny Eye Institute at UCLA, working in Prof. Vas Sadda’s lab, where she made significant contributions to research on diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), further honing her clinical expertise. In March 2023, Dr. Esmaeilkhanian joined Byers Eye Institute, pioneering treatments for corneal injuries using innovative stem cell therapies and hydrogels. Additionally, she plays a crucial role in collaborative clinical studies involving the first FDA-approved AI device for diagnosing diabetic retinopathy impacting patient care in both the Bay Area and underserved regions.
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Muneeb A. Faiq
Basic Life Research Scientist, Ophthalmology Research/Clinical Trials
BioDr. Muneeb A. Faiq is a behavioral and metabolic neuroscientist and ophthalmology researcher whose work spans molecular biology, neuroimaging, and systems neuroscience. He has made several foundational contributions, including the first functional cloning of CYP1B1 in congenital glaucoma, implicating retinoic-acid signaling in Zika virus–associated microcephaly, identifying central insulin resistance as a mechanistic basis for glaucoma, and providing the first in vivo evidence for a glymphatic pathway in the optic nerve. With more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and over 4,000 citations, Dr. Faiq has earned international recognition, including the Emerging Vision Scientist Award – 2019 from the Alliance for Eye and Vision Research. He is widely regarded as the pioneer and principal architect of the discipline of psychosomatic ophthalmology, a field he helped conceptualize and establish, leading to the integration of ophthalmic clinical practice with mindfulness-based and psychosomatic medicine frameworks. Dr. Faiq is currently advancing the concept of neurometabolic syntax in vision and brain function — a unifying systems-level framework that integrates genetics, metabolism, and behavior to reconceptualize ophthalmic and neurological diseases through a mechanistic and interdisciplinary lens. He has been selected for the prestigious Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) Achievement Award 2026.
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Zoha Zahid Fazal
Visiting Instructor, Ophthalmology Research/Clinical Trials
BioZoha Zahid Fazal is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Sepah Lab at Stanford Medicine, where her work advances screening innovation and diagnostic automation for retinal degenerative diseases through cutting-edge research and artificial intelligence–driven tools. During her time at Stanford, she has collaborated across the Spencer Center for Vision Research, the Center for Digital Health, the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Imaging, the Ocular Imaging Research & Reading Center, and the Mussallem Center for Biodesign—developing a multidisciplinary skill set at the intersection of medicine, applied coding, and computation.
Previously, as a predoctoral scholar, Zoha worked closely with the Director of the Global Health Dermatology Program at Yale School of Medicine, contributing to global training, research, advocacy, and field-based interventions addressing tropical and culturally contextual dermatologic disease. She also gained clinical and research experience through the Northwestern Medicine Adjunct Dermatology Program, supporting patient care, clinical education, and research in skin-of-color dermatology, autoimmune disease, and complex dermatopathies. Through these roles, she helped establish collaborative research initiatives linking U.S. academic centers with her home medical school in Pakistan.
Zoha earned her medical degree from Aga Khan University, graduating with honors in Community Health Sciences, and is recognized for her leadership and impact in community service. As part of AKU’s community education efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-authored and edited 'How Not to Go Viral', a student handbook, over 1,500 copies of which were distributed to libraries across Pakistan. For her contributions to poverty alleviation and pandemic relief efforts, she was awarded the Quadragon Member of the Year Award in 2020. She has also volunteered extensively in flood-relief operations and rural medical camps across Pakistan, experiences that exposed her to the limitations of resource-constrained health systems and paper-based medical records.
Zoha’s interest in global health research and big-data analytics began early. She graduated with distinction from Cedar College, majoring in biological sciences and advanced mathematics, and spent formative summers working alongside nursing faculty and public health leaders at the institution that later became her medical school. She has since continued to build technical fluency in healthcare data analytics and research software through self-directed coursework. She served as a global research lead from Pakistan for the COVAD Collaborative, led by the NHS Foundation Trust (UK), where her work focused on patient safety, healthcare quality, and vaccine uptake among individuals with autoimmune diseases. As a medical student, she also led Gates Foundation–sponsored interventional studies aimed at improving maternal, neonatal, and child health outcomes in underserved settings.
Looking ahead, Zoha envisions a career as a clinician-scientist specializing in biomedical informatics. Her long-term goal is to design sustainable, scalable, and context-aware digital health systems for developing nations—systems that are grounded in local resources, cultural realities, and environmental constraints. Through human-centered digital health innovation, she aims to advance equitable, evidence-based care globally. -
Jen Haensel
Basic Life Research Scientist, Ophthalmology Research/Clinical Trials
BioI am a Research Scientist in the Roberts Vision Development & Oculomotor Lab at Stanford University’s Department of Ophthalmology, working at the intersection of vision science, neuroscience, and experimental psychology. My current research uses eye-tracking, photorefraction, and psychophysics to study oculomotor development and visual function in amblyopia, strabismus, and concussion. I also work on developing methodology to record accommodative measurements and gaze behaviour in dynamic, naturalistic settings.
I completed my PhD in Experimental Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London (UK), where I used advanced eye-tracking techniques to study the influence of postnatal experience on social gaze behaviour. Prior to joining Stanford, I also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bath (UK), developing empirical human-robot interaction studies to inform the ethical design of humanoid robots. -
Md Enamul Haque
Biostatistician 3, Ophthalmology Research/Clinical Trials
Current Role at StanfordSr. Research Scientist
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Aubrey Hargrave
Temp - Non-Exempt, Ophthalmology Research/Clinical Trials
BioMy research interests are centered on ocular immunology and neuroinflammation. My long-standing interest in eye research stems from personal experience with eye disease, which has led me to explore vision research and underlies my passion for disease-centric research in order to improve quality of life for patients.
I am fascinated by the immune response and inflammation, in part because of its broad applicability to many human diseases. To this end, I am interested in developing an understanding of the interplay between the immune and nervous systems in the ocular microenvironment and my past research has allowed me to explore this interplay within diverse areas of the eye. As an undergraduate, I conducted research with Dr. Rima Mcleod to study patients with toxoplasmosis, a disease affecting both ocular and neural tissue. We created a patient database and investigated whether genotype influences the inflammatory response to the t.gondii parasite. As a predoctoral student with Dr. Alan Burns, my research focused on ocular inflammation in two cases; first, in acute inflammation following a corneal abrasion and second, in the context of systemic inflammation caused by early metabolic syndrome. I analyzed the immune response in both cases and developed methods to determine the effect on corneal nerves.
During my postdoctoral training with Dr. Alfredo Dubra, I am continuing to build on my previous training in vision science, inflammation, and neurodegeneration by using adaptive optics imaging, in conjunction with standard clinical measurements, to explore potential biomarkers in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and retinal degeneration. With high-resolution in vivo adaptive optics imaging we are able to monitor changes in retinal tissues at the cellular level over time, as well as to observe minute changes in the retina with treatment during clinical trials. -
Karteek Kunala
Research Engineer, Ophthalmology Research/Clinical Trials
BioMy current interests are in development of design and instrumentation of pre-clinical vision devices, to conduct non-invasive in vivo retinal imaging. I studied Physics with a concentration in optics during my time at University of Hyderabad, India and received a bachelors and masters degree in 2014. I then moved to USA to continue working in the field of optics at University of North Carolina at Charlotte to pursue my PhD, working on nanofabrication of broadband anti-reflective structures. My interest in vision science started with my job at University of Rochester as a research scientist, where I was involved in developing optical imaging tools using adaptive optics to study retinal diseases. My work was focused on development of fluorescence lifetime imaging techniques in humans and two photon fluorescence microscopy in mouse.
