Medical Engineering Distinguished Seminar Series, Dan Schwartz, MD

Dr. Schwartz will review his experiences collaborating with fantastic Caltech scientists and engineers to develop medical technology. He will reflect on the many challenges of getting a medical product from the laboratory into patients, emphasizing the important role of clinicians in the process.

Biography: Dan Schwartz is Professor Emeritus at UCSF. Currently, he is Physician-in-Residence at the Merkin Institute for Translational Research, Caltech. He is Director of the Retina Service at the San Francisco VAMC.

Medical School: UCSF; Internship: LA County; Residency: Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital; Fellowships: Medical College of Wisconsin (Vitreoretinal Surgery); Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (Medical Retina/Ultrasound)

Over the past 25 years, Dan has collaborated with several faculty at Caltech working to develop various medical devices and more recently, therapeutic agents. With the late Bob Grubbs (Chemistry), Julie Kornfield (Chemical Engineering), and post-docs Chris Sandstedt and Jagdish Jethmalani, Dan collaborated to develop the Light Adjustable Lens (LAL), the first intraocular lens for cataract surgery that can be adjusted non-invasively using light. The LAL is now FDA approved and is being commercialized by RxSight (RXST).

With Scott Fraser (now at USC), Bob Grubbs, and post-doc Jeff Fingler, Dan collaborated to develop optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), the first non-invasive means of imaging the retinal vasculature. This technology is now widely used internationally in the care of patients with macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and other retinovascular diseases.

Currently, Dan is co-founder of two biotech start-ups: NVasc is developing a novel approach to treat ischemic diseases of the retina; and, Lumenex Bio is a pre-clinical company directed at treating aneurysms.