TearLab Corporation

An internationally recognized dry eye specialist, Professor Kazuo Tsubota has been focusing on the pathogenesis and treatment of dry eye.Dr. Tsubota is Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at Keio University School of Medicine, his alma mater. He was the first Japanese recipient of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Honor Awardin 1994. He heads a very large, active dry eye research group as well as the largest refractive group in Japan, which has several clinics throughout the country.

Dr. Tsubota has many research projects underway which include ocular surface reconstruction, regeneration of the cornea, lacrimal gland,immunology of Sjogren’s disease and wound healing of refractive surgery. His personal interest is actively researching dry eye. He has written more than 250 peer-reviewed articles for publications includingNew England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Immunology, FASEB Journal and The American Journal of Ophthalmology.In addition to holding editorial positions on three major ophthalmic journals, he is a regular reviewer for numerous international ophthalmic journals.

Anthony Bron is a member of TearLab Corporation’s SAB. He is Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology in Oxford with interests in external eye disease, dry eye, eye infection, corneal healing and inherited eye disease. At various times, he has served as President of the Ophthalmic Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in London, as Chairman of the Association of Eye Research (AER) and as Vice-President of the Joint Eye Research Meetings in Ophthalmology and Vision (JERMOV). He is currently Secretary of the International Society for Eye Research(ISER) and President of the European Vision and Eye Research Association (EVER). He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science of the United Kingdom.

Dr. Bron has authored more than 200 publications and is on the Editorial Board of seven peer-review journals. He has lecturedextensively in the UK and abroad. He was recipient of the Castroviejo Society Medal in 1992 and of the Doyne Medal in 1996. He gave the Charter Lecture to the College of Optometrists in London in 2001 and the Javal lecture at the International Congress of Ophthalmology in2003. He is co-author of several books, including Wolff’s Anatomy of the Eye and Orbit, Ocular Infection, Lens Disorders, and Lecture Notes on Ophthalmology.

Dr. Gary Foulks is the Arthur and Virginia Keeney Chair at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences. He is Director of the Cornea Service and is Medical Director of the Contact Lens Service. Previously he was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine since 1996 and was also Director of Clinical Research and the Cornea Service there. Before this he was Professor of Ophthalmology at Duke University Eye Center where he directed the Cornea Service for 17 years. He was certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Ophthalmology in 1977 and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthamology, receiving Honor and Senior Honor awards from that society. He is a member of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists, the Castroviejo Cornea Society, the American Eye Study Club, and the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Foulks has authored more than 100 publications regarding his research in a wide variety of ophthalmologic areas and serves as are viewer for several ophthalmology journals. He was selected to givethe W. Morton Grant Lecture (Tuft’s University) and the Whitney Sampson Lecture (CLAO). He is past president of the Castroviejo Cornea Society and the Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists. Dr. Foulks presently is Associate Editor for Clinical Science of The Ocular Surface, is on the Editorial Board of Cornea and the Editorial Board of the Eye and Contact Lens Journal.His medical degree is from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons,and he completed ophthalmology residency training at Duke University.He also completed a two-year fellowship in cornea and external disease at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.His research interest is in corneal transplantation, dry eye disease,ocular surface disease and contact lenses.

Richard L. Lindstrom, M.D. is a recognized leader in corneal, cataract,refractive and laser surgery. After serving as Professor of Ophthalmology and holding the Harold G. Scheie Research Chair at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Lindstrom entered private practice in1990. He is the founder of Minnesota Eye Consultants and is an attending surgeon at the Phillips Eye Institute and Minnesota Eye and Laser Surgery Center in Minneapolis. He conceptualized the Phillips Eye Institute Center for Teaching & Research, a state-of-the-artophthalmic research and surgical skills education facility. Dr.Lindstrom plays an active role in the teaching program for Fellows at the Phillips Eye Institute. He also serves as an Associate Director ofthe Minnesota Lions Eye Bank. He is Medical Director of TLC Vision and Midwest Surgical Services, Inc., and is a member of their respective Boards. Dr. Lindstrom has been appointed Secretary to the Executive Committee of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons.He is chairman & CEO of Lindstrom Cleaning and Construction, athree-generation family business. He has been awarded the title of Adjunct Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota.

Dr. Lindstrom attended the University of Minnesota where he graduated magna cum laudefrom the College of Liberal Arts in 1971. He obtained his Doctor of Medicine in 1972 as well as a Bachelor of Science. He then performed six months of full-time research at the University of Minnesota supported by a grant from the National Eye Institute. Following a12-month internship in internal medicine at Northwestern Hospital, he performed another six months of full-time research at the University of Minnesota, investigating Organ Culture of the Cornea and Corneal Physiology, again funded by the National Eye Institute. He then completed a 36-month residency in Ophthalmology at the University of Minnesota and affiliated hospitals. Following this he spent six months in Fellowship in Cornea and External Disease at the University of Minnesota Hospitals under the direction of Donald J. Doughman, M.D.,and John E. Harris, Ph.D., M.D. He then spent six months in Fellowship in Anterior Segment Surgery at Mary Shiels Eye Hospital in Dallas,Texas, under the direction of William S. Harris, M.D., and another six months as a Heed Fellow in Glaucoma and Anterior Segment Surgery at University Hospitals in Salt Lake City, Utah, under the direction of Henry Van Dyke, M.D. and Michael S. Kottler, M.D.

Daniel S. Durrie, M.D., is the leader of the refractive team at Durrie Vision in Overland Park, Kansas. With more than 25 years experience in refractive and corneal surgery, Dr. Durrie has been a pioneer in procedures to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.Dr. Durrie has participated in 46 completed clinical studies and is presently an investigator or medical monitor for ten other studies. He has performed more than 40,000 refractive surgery procedures. Also, he has served as medical monitor for several excimer laser studies and has been an investigator for various others. He continues to review refractive surgical techniques and analyze clinical study data. Dr.Durrie trains surgeons from around the world on new surgical techniques.

Dr. Durrie’s scientific articles and papers have appeared in numerous professional medical publications; he has been an author of more than100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He serves on the Editorial Board for Ocular Surgery News (Section Editor), The Journal of Corneal and Refractive Surgery, Review of Ophthalmology, and Refractive Eyecare for Ophthalmologists. Dr. Durrie has given hundreds of presentations for professional organizations on four continents.

Dr. Durrie received his medical doctorate and completed his residency at the University of Nebraska. He completed a Fellowship in corneal surgery at the Filkins Eye Clinic in Omaha. He is a board certified ophthalmologist and serves as Associate Clinical Professor and Directorof Refractive Surgery Services at the University of Kansas Medical Center. His honors include: one of the top 10 refractive surgeons in the nation, Ophthalmology Times;Best Doctors in America lists, multiple times; America’s Top Doctors;America's Top Ophthalmologist; Certified by the Council for Refractive Surgery Quality Assurance; Fellow, American Academy of Ophthalmology;Distinguished Lans Lectureship, International Society of Refractive Surgery, 1996; Pioneer in Refractive Surgery, 1999; Barraquer Lecturer,American Academy of Ophthalmology; Senior Achievement Award, American Academy of Ophthalmology, 2002; One of 50 Most Influential Ophthalmologists, 2005; and Lifetime Achievement Award, International Society of Refractive Surgery.

Dr. Karpecki graduated from Indiana University and completed a Fellowship in Cornea and Refractive Surgery at Hunkeler Eye Centers inaffiliation with the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in 1994. Hecurrently serves as Director of Research for Moyes Eye Clinic in KansasCity. Dr. Karpecki serves on or chairs numerous optometric associationcommittees including Chair of the Refractive Surgery Advisory Committeeto the AOA and on the AOA Education Committee.

He has lectured in more than 300 symposia covering four continents andis the first optometrist to be invited to the Delphi InternationalSociety at Wilmer-John’s Hopkins, which includes the top 25 dry eyeexperts in the world, and the National Eye Institute’s dry eyecommittee. This was a task force established by the U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services to better understand and treat dry eyedisease in women. A noted educator and author, Dr. Karpecki lectures onnew technology, surgical advancements and therapeutics with an emphasison cornea and external disease. He presently serves on sevenprofessional journal Editorial Boards.

In 1991, along with Stephen Brint, M.D., he performed the first LASIK in the United States. Later he performed the first Custom LASIK ablation based on topography in the United States. Dr. Slade has remained on the cutting edge, having the Nation's first and longest experience with all laser LASIK, accommodating intraocular lenses for cataract surgery (crystalens) and implantable corneal contact lens. In fact, Dr. Slade was a lead investigator and presented data to the FDA for panel approval for both the crystalens and the implantable contact lens. As part of the trial, Dr. Slade implanted the first intraocular lens for presbyopia in North America. Of unique note, Dr. Slade is considered a "surgeon's surgeon." More than 450 of his fellow eye surgeons have chosen him for their own eye surgery. He is an active researcher and the U.S. medical monitor for several new technologies including the B&L Technolas and ALCON Excimer Laser Custom Vision Clinical Trials.

He has received numerous awards including 12 named lectures, Refractive Surgeon of the Year, two China Service Medals and the Summit Technologies Pioneer of Refractive Surgery Award. In 2006 the American Academy of Ophthalmology and International Society of Refractive Surgery selected Dr. Slade for the 2007 Barraquer Award and Lecture, the top award in Refractive Surgery. Dr. Slade's peers have selected him for inclusion in "Top Fifty Opinion Leaders." "Top Texas Doctors," "Best Doctors" and "Best Doctors in America." Further, he has received the Honor Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He is a regular presenter at medical meetings, has received several "Best Speaker" awards, and has twice won First Place at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Film Festival. He is on several Editorial Boards including the Journal of Refractive Surgery. Dr. Slade has produced many articles and book chapters, holds five patents or patents pending in the field, and has authored five textbooks on refractive surgery. He has been featured in numerous news segments aired on CBS, ABC, NBC, UPI International and PBS as well as numerous national affiliate stations. Dr. Slade has been quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek as well as in numerous local publications. Dr. Slade was the featured surgeon on the Emmy Award winning PBS documentary "20/10 by 2010?" narrated by Walter Chronkite.

Dr. Bielory has been consistently selected as one of New Jersey's and New York's "Top Docs" in metropolitan-area surveys for the past 15years. He has several hundred publications in peer-reviewed journals and serves on several editorial boards. He continues to serve in various capacities in a variety of national organizations including as an Associate Editor of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; committee chairs for various committees in the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; past Chairman of the NIH NHLBI Raynaud's Treatment Trial; the program chairman for the ACAAI International Symposium on Complementary Interventions in Treatment of Asthma and Allergy; and reviewer for the NIH NCCAM Centers of Excellence for Research on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CERC). He has been appointed by the Governor of New Jersey to sit on the Clean Air Council advisory to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Dr.Bielory presently sits on the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) Immunology and Respiratory Council of Experts and on the recently convened USP Medicare Model Committee mandated by the United Stated Congress.

Jay S. Pepose, MD, PhD, a specialist in refractive surgery, corneal and external diseases, is founder and medical director of the Pepose Vision Institute and the Midwest Corneal Research Foundation. A Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Dr. Pepose previously held the Bernard Becker Endowed Chair. He is a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia and to ABC’s 20/20.

Dr. Pepose received an A.B. and M.A. in neurophysiology from Brandeis University, completed the MD-PhD program (Alpha Omega Alpha) at the UCLA School of Medicine, his ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Institute at The Johns Hopkins Medical Center and fellowship training at Georgetown University Medical Center. He is actively involved in clinical research trials and has been the recipient of R-01 grant support from the National Eye Institute.  Currently Executive Editor of The American Journal of Ophthalmology, Dr. Pepose has also served on the editorial board of numerous other prestigious journals, including IOVS, Cornea and the Journal of Refractive Surgery. Dr. Pepose has published over 160 peer reviewed articles and a book on ocular infections and inflammatory diseases. He is the recipient of numerous awards and named lectureships, including the Cogan Award and the 2009 inaugural fellow award from ARVO and the Senior Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Born in Genoa, Italy on April 19, 1950; is a Specialist in Ophthalmology, trained at the University of Genoa and at the Eye Research Institute of Retina Foundation (Boston, MA). He has published eight books and more than 400 papers in the field of Ophthalmology, mainly on tear film physio-pathology, ocular surface reconstruction, ocular inflammation and diagnosis and treatment of Glaucoma.

Prof. Rolando has participated in:  the National Eye Institute/Industry Workshop on clinical trials in dry eye (1995), The European Advisory Group for Dry Eye Disease 1998 – 2001, The Baltimore Delphi Panel Meeting on Dry Eyes (2003),  and The Dry Eye Work Shop (DEWS) 2007. He is the President of Italian Society of Dacriology and Ocular Surface and is a member of the following: the Board of Directors of Società Italiana Trapianto di Cornea (Italian Society for Cornea Transplantation), the Board of Directors of Italian Society of Ocular Inflammation, the Medical & scientific advisory board of TFOS, and the Editorial Board of The Ocular Surface Jouranal.

At present, Prof. Rolando is the Director of Is.Pre Oftalmica Institute, Genoa  and Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Department of Neurosciences, Ophthalmology and Genetics of the University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy and Director of ”The Center for Clinical and Experimental Research on Ocular Surface Diseases”  the Clinica Oculistica, Department of Neurosciences, Ophthalmology and Genetics of the University of Genoa, viale Benedetto XV - 5, 16132 Genoa, Italy.

Prof Dr. med. Gerd Geerling (D.O.B. 09.06.1965, Cologne/Germany) studied Medicine at the University of Aachen, where he – in 1994 – completed his MD work in the Department of Ophthalmology, while working with Martin Reim on severe alkali burns (Title of thesis: “Examination of severely burned human corneal and conjunctival tissue from keratoplasty, redo keratoplasty and peridectomy with scannning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray analysis”). From 1992 t o 1997 he trained as resident at the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Lübeck/Germany (Director: Prof. Dr. Horst Laqua). From 1997 until 2000 and again in 2003 he received subspecialist training in corneal, external and adnexal eye diseases at Moorfields Eye Hospital/London, United Kingdom. Here he worked with John Dart, Richard Collin, Geoffrey Rose and Peng Khaw on ocular surface disease and artificial tear substitutes. After returning to Germany he in 2000 worked as an equivalent to Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon again in Lübeck, where he also became Director of the Laboratory for Experimental Ophthalmology of the Department. In 2003 he completed his “Habilitation” in Ophthalmology (equivalent to PhD, Title: “Natural Tear Substitutes”) and became - until August 2005 - Reader in Ophthalmology and Senior Managing Consultant of the Department of Ophthalmology in Lübeck. In September 2005 he took the official chair of a Professor at the University of Würzburg, Germany, where he now also serves as Deputy Director of the Department of Ophthalmology.

Dr. Geerling’s clinical and scientific interests are the functional unit of the ocular surface and adnexae and new treatment modalities for dry eyes. This includes surgical approaches to treat the most severe cases of the disease. Natural forms of tear substitution such as salivary gland transplantation and autologous serum and evaluating and minimising the toxicity of lubricants have been in the centre of his research. He is author of 201 scientific presentations (113 as first author), 80 printed publications (38 as first author, 50 in peer reviewed journals), has written several book chapters and is currently editing a book on surgical management options for dry eyes. He has tutored 8 MD students and organised several national and international symposia, the last at the meeting of the European Society of Ophthalmology in Berlin in September 2005. He was awarded a number of scientific prizes including the „Leonhard-Klein Award“ (1998) of the German Charity Council, Norman-Rowe Prize (2000) of the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and picked up a total of 1.100.000 € grant money so far. He was involved and holds several patents on pharmaceutical preparations for the treatment of the ocular surface and has consulted for Pfizer and Novartis. He serves in the cornea special interest group of the German Ophthalmic Society, the Medical Scientific Advisory Board of the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) and was actively involved in the recent DEWS-consensus conferences of international Dry Eye experts. He is Editor of the journal “Current Eye Research” and serves on other Editorial Boards. He is member of ARVO, DOG, TFOS, ESOPRS and is an Honorary Member of SICSSO.