Pirro Hysi, MD, PhD

My main professional interest is discovering differences in our gene sequence, gene regulation, and activity modification, or subtly altered states of metabolism leading to human disease. After my initial training in medicine, I earned my PhD degree in genomic medicine, researching how the environmental factors interact with the genes to cause disease. Diseases are often organ-specific manifestations of systemic molecular disruptions. I researched how the disease of different systems and organs develop, but nowhere else are the consequences of the molecular mechanisms that make the difference between health and disease clearer than in the eye. I have published over a hundred peer-reviewed research articles on several aspects of human health and disease, mostly on the genetics of myopia, glaucoma, and corneal disease. I am an active member of several professional associations, including the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and am working with many excellent collaborators across the world with whom I share the objective of improving human health and protecting sight.