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The Center for Translational Vision Research Distinguished Speaker Series, also known as "Friday Seminars" showcases innovative research across the world. The seminar series has now been expanded to include lectures by experts on topics ranging from Ophthalmology, Genetics, Biochemistry, Neurobiology, Imaging, Computational Sciences to Novel Ophthalmic Treatments.
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Marco Zarbin’s research focuses on cell-based therapy for patients with aged-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the United States in people over age 55. He and his colleagues are working to develop successful techniques to replace dead, diseased, or damaged cells in the retina with healthy ones to save a patient’s vision.
Zarbin, the inaugural holder of the Alfonse A. Cinotti/Lions Eye Research Chair of Ophthalmology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, also works with Ellen Townes-Anderson in the school’s Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Neuroscience to develop pharmacological therapy that will improve retinal function following retinal detachment and other forms of retinal trauma. This translational research has the potential to improve vision in patients with retinal degenerative disease as well as in patients with other retina-related vision loss.
“The successful completion of this research,” Zarbin says, “may lead to a safer and more effective surgical approach to cell transplantation in patients with advanced dry macular degeneration. It may also lead to better vision preservation among patients with retinal detachment or retinal trauma who do not require cell-based therapy.”
Zarbin graduated from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his residency and fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute, where he received the Francis S. Schwentker Award for excellence in research. He is chair of the Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and chief of ophthalmology at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. He is the co-director of the Ocular Cell Transplantation Laboratory at the medical school.
He has co-authored 227 peer-reviewed publications, 120 book chapters, 214 abstracts, and books on age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and cell-based therapy for degenerative retinal disease. He is editor in chief of Translational Vision Science and Technology and is a member of the editorial boards of Ophthalmology and Ophthalmology-Retina. He is a vice chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Foundation Fighting Blindness. He is also a member of Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Ophthalmological Society, the Club Jules Gonin, the Retina Society, the Macula Society, and the American Society of Retina Specialists.
The chair he holds is named in honor of Alfonse Cinotti, M.D., a professor and chairman emeritus of the Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at New Jersey Medical School, and the New Jersey Lions, which helped fund the chair.