Past Webinar from Thursday, Nov. 15th, 2018: Restoring Vision: Retinal Implants, Gene Therapy,
and the Role of Rehabilitation
AMAC Accessibility at Georgia Tech and Georgia AER collaborated to put together this one-hour webinar (ACVREP CEUs and CRCs being offered). The presenter, Dr. Duane Geruschat, is a Research Associate in Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute of the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.
Bio of Presenter
Duane R. Geruschat, Ph.D is a research associate in Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute of the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. A certified orientation and mobility specialist and low vision therapist, Dr. Geruschat studied orientation and mobility at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, earning a master's degree in 1976. He went on to earn a doctorate in educational psychology with a minor in vision science from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1986.
His early research involved ambulation and low vision, including studies on how low vision pedestrians use their remaining vision to navigate street crossings and complex intersections.
Since 2004 he worked as a member of a research team at Johns Hopkins studying various types of prosthetic vision including the Optobionics Artificial Silicon Retina (ASR) and the Argus II from Second Sight Medical Products. He was also a member of the study team at the University of Pennsylvania/Spark Therapeutics and their RPE65 gene therapy treatment designed to improve the vision of patients with lebers congenital amaurosis. Both of these products have been approved for commercial distribution by the FDA. They will be the major emphasis of his presentation. Dr. Geruschat is the recipient of several awards, including the AFB Corrine Kirchner Research Award, AER Outstanding Contributions in Research and Literature in Low Vision, Western Michigan Alumnus of the Year, and the AER Regional Lifetime Achievement Award.
From 2005 through 2012 he was the editor in chief of The Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, the international journal of record in our field.