This week Dr Sadri is joined by Ram Rao, CEO of LensGen, who developed a curvature changing fluid lens to correct presbyopia. Ram tells his story from the early beginning while collaborating with the late, great Roger Steinert, MD and realizing that they had to go back to the drawing board to reinvent the technology.  Rather than throw in the towel after hearing no repetitively from investors, Ram persevered at all costs, subsequently raised $42M to date and emerged with a breakthrough technology to treat cataracts and presbyopia. Listen in for pearls of entrepreneurial wisdom and understand why Ram never took no for an answer.

Seasoned start-up and medtech executive, Rob Thornhill joins us on this week’s OIS Podcast. Rob sold Tear Film to Alcon in 2018 and is back in the saddle as the CEO of Centricity Vision. Dr Sadri has Rob discuss the benefits of the Zepto device in delivering automated, precise, circular, and centered capsulotomies, how their business model evolved during COVID and the future direction for the company.

This week, Firas Rahhal sat down (virtually) with none other than Mark Blumenkranz, who shares lessons learned the hard way which led to his proven “Innovation Recipe”. Mark also sheds light on the investing/incubating model for Lagunitas Biosciences and what he claims will be his final CEO role at Kedalion Therapeutics.

This week’s OIS Retina Podcast guest is French-born Patricia Zilliox, who boomeranged back to her homeland to become president and CEO of Eyevensys.

Before that she’d spent 25 years with Alcon before joining the Foundation Fighting Blindness as chief drug development officer. 

When a family matter brought her back to France, she was introduced to Eyevensys through the investment group BPI France. 

Having spent so much time evaluating new therapies at FFB, she was intrigued by Eyevensys’ unique platform to enable the sustained intraocular production of therapeutic proteins to treat a broad range of ophthalmic disease. 

Needless to say, she took the CEO job and shares more details on Eyevensys’ lead product: a gene therapy to treat uveitis.

If there’s one podcast you listen to all year – this is it!

Dick Lindstrom explains how saying “Yes” to opportunities, led him into an extremely gratifying and successful career in ophthalmology – which was the furthest thing from his plan to take over the family construction business.

This episode is packed with gems of insights on building an academic practice and working with industry to balancing work and family. 

Ophthalmology’s leaders convene at the Ophthalmology Innovation Summits held several times a year. 

OIS Podcasts keeps the conversation going the entire year. 

In weekly podcasts, Host Ehsan Sadri interviews the most influential industry executives, investors, KOLs, and researchers about what they see as the most exciting approaches to finding new ways to treat eye disease. 

Join the conversation by subscribing to the OIS Podcast.

This week’s guest is Kenneth Mandell, MD, PhD, an ophthalmologist by training with a PhD in molecular biology who has been blessed with some amazing mentors who guided him into a fascinating career in ophthalmology. 

Ken’s educational and research pedigree includes: Tufts, Emory, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he also has an equally impressive corporate resume.

Ken took his passion for biomedical engineering, combined with a spin-out technology from MIT and a grant from the Department of Defense, and used it to develop unique drug-delivery solutions for glaucoma, postoperative inflammation, and wound healing.

In this third OIS Retina Podcast, host Firas Rahhal, MD, sits down with Paul Hallen, VP, Global Head, Retina and Glaucoma, at Alcon, who talks about how he grew with the company over 31 years and provides an engineer’s perspective on how far innovation in retina surgery has come, and where it’s heading.

Host Ehsan Sadri, MD, is joined by Jeffrey Nau, PhD, who shares insights from a career in ophthalmology that has led to his current role as the CEO of publicly traded Oyster Point Pharma. In this interview, Jeff addresses some of the recent setbacks from COVID-19, conducting business virtually, different indications the company plans to address, and opportunities that lie ahead.

This week’s podcast is a panel discussion, “Industry Insights and Innovating Internationally,” held last month during the OIS Israel virtual program. The discussion was led by William J. Link, PhD, and included Laurent Attias, Alcon; Prabhu Velusami, MD, Johnson & Johnson London Innovation Center; Frank Chen, Santen Ventures; Richel Liu, Rimonci Capital; and serial entrepreneur Barak Azmon, MD. The panelists, based in different parts of the globe, share varying perspectives on where innovation happens, both geographically and structurally – that is, from the private, public, or corporate sectors. And they address the impact that Israel has on innovation in our field. Click here to listen in.

This week’s special guest on the OIS Retina Podcast is David Esposito, CEO of ONL Therapeutics. A West Point graduate who served as a platoon leader in the first Gulf War, Esposito began his career in ophthalmology as a pharmaceutical sales rep for Merck. This led to several executive positions and eventually to building and scaling private companies. His career came full circle when investors recruited him to ONL Therapeutics a year ago. In this episode, host Firas Rahhal, MD, digs into ONL’s portfolio of therapies in development, the latest on the company’s clinical trials, and how as a corporate leader Esposito draws on his military experience.