Miguel Flores-Bellver, PhD

Throughout his scientific career, Dr. Miguel Flores-Bellver has worked in several different labs, and each of these experiences has allowed him to gather knowledge and know-how in many areas. In 2009, during his undergraduate studies, he started working at the IBV-CSIC (Spain), sparking his interest in neuroscience. During his MS studies at the CEU (Spain), he was introduced to the eye in 2011. He received his PhD in 2015 at the UCV (Spain), carrying out some of his research in stem cells at The Wilmer Eye Institute (Johns Hopkins University). Then, he returned to Wilmer for a postdoctoral fellowship and mastered the skills for generating retinal organoids and RPE from hiPSCs. In 2018, he completed a second postdoctoral training at the University of Colorado and participated in the launch of CellSight. In 2020, he was promoted to Instructor, and his studies provided the first evidence linking extracellular vesicles with AMD. In 2023, he became an assistant professor and launched his independent research focused on identifying the impact of extracellular vesicles in drusen formation. Dr. Flores-Bellver has 31 peer-reviewed publications and 4 U.S. patents. He has received several awards, including the MSCRF-TEDCO (2016), the 3D Retinal Organoid Challenge by the NEI-NIH (2021, 2022), the Bert M. Glaser MD Award for Innovative Research in Retina (2023), the David R. Hinton MD Scholarship (2023), and the Dr. Joe G. Hollyfield New Investigator Award for Macular Degeneration Research (2024).