National Eye Institute, NIH
Bethesda, MD, USA
Brian P. Brooks, MD, PhD is the Chief of Ophthalmic Genetics & Visual Function Branch at the National Eye Institute. He oversees a team of basic science principal investigators and clinicians working on fields ranging from adaptive optics and clinical genomics to regenerative medicine and developmental biology, all with the aim of improving patient diagnosis and treatments for inherited eye disease. His laboratory research focuses on the genetics of uveal coloboma (a potentially blinding congenital ocular malformation) and the pathogenesis/treatment of albinism. Dr. Brooks identified nitisinone as a possible treatment for one form of albinism through preclinical work and has conducted a pilot clinical trial. More recently, he has created a cellular model of human retinal pigment epithelium in albinism that will facilitate the identification of new therapeutic targets. He is also directing a clinical trial using oral metformin (a commonly used anti-diabetic drug) as a possible treatment for Stargardt disease.