NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE ​at ARVO 2026

The 2026 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting will take place from Sunday, May 3, to Thursday, May 7, in Denver, Colorado, where many scientists and physicians from Northwestern Medicine will join panels and present research. For more information, browse our schedule below.

​Sunday, May 3

TITLE

Northwestern Medicine PRESENTERS and AUTHORS

TIME
Mitochondrial Function in Neurons
Navdeep Chandel, PhD
8:01 – 8:21 am
Onset and Risk Factors for Posterior Vitreous Detachment Following Cataract Surgery Using a Large Database of Retina Specialists 
Manjot Gill, MD, Saeed Mohammadi, MD, Syona Hariharan, John Brown
1:00 – 2:45 pm
Inconsistent AI Advice for Geographic Atrophy Patients Over One Week
Alexander Valdes, Darren Gonzalez, Gloria Wu, PhD
1:00 – 2:45 pm
LLMs and Stargardt's: Are There Gender Disparities
Gloria Wu, PhD, Alexander Valdes
1:00 – 2:45 pm
NLE Ang (1-7) Protein-Like Polymers (PLP) Improved Chemical Burn-induced Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency (LSCD)
Parisa Foroozandeh, PhD, Nihal Kaplan, PhD, Kurt Lu, MD, Robert Lavker, PhD, Nathan Gianneschi, PhD, Han Peng, PhD
​1:00 – 2:45 pm
Onset and Risk Factors for Posterior Vitreous Detachment Following Cataract Surgery Using a Large Database of Retina Specialists
Manjot Gill, MD, John Brown, Curtis Heisel, MD
1:00 – 2:45 pm
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A Prospective Longitudinal Comparison of 0.05% Low-Dose Atropine and Dual-Focus Contact Lenses for Myopia Control Efficacy
Noreen Shaikh, OD
3:15 – 5:00 pm
Establishing a Tree Shrew Model of Choroidal Neovascularization
Weijia Fan, Emma Smith, Lucy Li, Hao Zhang, PhD
3:15 – 5:00 pm
Utilizing Large Language Model as Clinical Decision Support for Complex Non-infectious Uveitis Management
Saeed Mohammadi, MD
3:15 – 5:00 pm

​Monday, May 4

Endothelial Endothelin-1 Maintains Vascular Survival in Hyperoxia and Regulates Ischemia Driven Retinal Angiogenesis
Katia Corano Scheri, PhD, Yi-Wen Hsieh, PhD, Amani Fawzi, MD
11:15 am – 1:00 pm

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Etiology of Pediatric Cataracts at an Urban Tertiary Care Ophthalmology Practice in the United States
Jennifer Rossen, MD, Allison Weisman, Andy Drackley, Alexander Ing, Valerie Allegretti, Kai Lee Yap, PhD, Pamela Rathburn, PhD, Adam Gordon, PhD, Patrick McMullen, PhD, Andrew Skol, PhD, Brenda Bohnsack, MD, PhD
11:15 am – 1:00 pm
Latency Coding of Object Position in the Mouse Retina
Zach Jessen, PhD, Julia Kristiina Fadjukov, PhD, Greg Schwartz, PhD
11:15 am – 1:00 pm
Long-Term Visual Survivability Outcomes of Pediatric Keratoprosthesis: A Single-Center Study
Arturo Francisco Balaguer Townsend

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11:15 am – 1:00 pm

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Medical Management Implications of Genetic Testing for Pediatric Cataracts
Allison Weisman, Valerie Allegretti, Hantamala Ralay Ranaivo, Andy Drackley, Alexander Ing, Kai Lee Yap, PhD, Pamela Rathbun, PhD, Patrick McMullen, PhD, Andrew Skol, PhD, Brenda Bohnsack, MD, PhD, Jennifer Rossen, MD
11:15 am – 1:00 pm
Survival Probability of Boston Type 1 Keratoprosthesis at 10-Years
Arturo Francisco Balaguer Townsend
11:15 am – 1:00 pm
Characterization of the Retinal Microvasculature in Transthyretin Amyloidosis with Optical Coherence
Syona Hariharan, Sanjiv Shah, MD, John Fallon, Nikoo Hamzeh, MD, Anna Busza, Manjot Gill, MD
3:00 – 4:45 pm
Age effects of AKB-9778 on Schlemm’s canal (SC) and Aqueous Humor (AH) Dynamics in Living Mice
Raymond Fang, Hao Zhang, PhD
3:00 – 4:45 pm
Electrocardiogram-Synchronized Doppler Holography System for Quantifying Cardiac Cycle-Resolved Retinal Blood Flow
Kunal Kanwar
​3:00 – 4:45 pm
Exploring the Relationship Between Coronary Artery Calcium Scores and Subretinal Drusenoid Deposits as Indicators of Systemic Vascular Dysfunction
Anushree Aneja, Jay Bharat Bisen, Rukhsana Mirza, MD
3:00 – 4:45 pm
Predicting Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) Data and HbA1c from Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) With Deep Learning
Amani Fawzi, MD
3:00 – 4:45 pm​​

Tuesday, May 5

Preserving the Corneal/Limbal Niche with PLGA Nanoparticles After Mustard Injury: From Mechanistic Insights to Therapeutic Strategies
Elif Kayaalp Nalbant, PhD, Dan Xu, PhD, Tobias Neef, Nihal Kaplan, PhD, Kurt Lu, MD, Stephen Miller, PhD, Han Peng, PhD, Robert Lavker, PhD
8:30 – 10:15 am
Variability Unveiled: Differing Documentation in Diabetic Retinopathy Across Academic Centers
Bryce Tatum, Paul Bryar, MD, Adovich Rivera, MD, PhD, Xueqing Zhou, Arun Ahuja, William Marcus, Charlesnika Evans, PhD, Abel Kho, MD, Timothy Janetos, MD, Dustin French, PhD
8:30 – 10:15 am
Factors Associated With Repeat Surgery Within 1 Year of Incisional Glaucoma Surgery
Brian Carter, Dustin French, PhD, Timothy Janetos, MD, Adovich Rivera, MD, PhD, Xueqing Zhou, John Fallon, Bryce Tatum, Charlesnika Evans, PhD, Abel Kho, MD, Paul Bryar, MD
9:00 – 9:15 am
An Electronic Health Record-Based Predictive Model to Quantify Multifactorial Risk for Primary Open Angle Glaucoma
Aditya Belamkar, MD
1:15 – 3:00 pm

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Expression of VEGFR3 in the adult Schlemm’s canal is not required for IOP homeostasis
Sofia Lara Ochoa, Pan Liu, PhD, Evan Scott, PhD, Mark Johnson, PhD, Benjamin Thomson, PhD
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1:15 – 3:00 pm
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Ocular Macrophages Support Choriocapillaris Health Through Complement Inhibition
Ritvik Viniak, Sanaz Ghotbaldini, Joyce Gong, Amrita Rajesh, Jeremy Lavine, MD, PhD
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1:15 – 3:00 pm

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The Blind Spot in Value-Based Care - Retinopathy Monitoring Gaps for Women and Older Adults
John Fallon, Paul Bryar, MD, Adovich Rivera, MD, PhD, Xueqing Zhou, Brian Carter, Bryce Tatum, Charlesnika Evans, PhD, Abel Kho, MD, Timothy Janetos, MD, Dustin French, PhD
3:30 – 5:15 pm
Different Academic Sites, Different Fates, Uneven Rates of Vision-threatening Diabetic Retinopathy Risk After Adjustment
Adovich Rivera, MD, PhD, Jeremy Lavine, MD, PhD, Xueqing Zhou, Arun Ahuja, William Marcus, Charlesnika Evans, PhD, Abel Kho, MD, Timothy Janetos, MD, Paul Bryar, MD, Dustin French, PhD
3:30 – 5:15 pm
Choroidal Thickness Measurement in Patients with Pulmonary Hypertension
Gabriella Danziger, Jay Bharat Bisen, Michael Cuttica, MD, Rukhsana Mirza, MD
3:30 – 5:15 pm
Deep Capillary Perfusion Deficits on OCTA Reflect Renal Albuminuria in Type 2 Diabetes in the AI READI V2 Database
Jay Bharat Bisen, Rukhsana Mirza, MD
3:30 – 5:15 pm
Expression Quantitative Trait Loci of the Human Choroid in Aging and Macular Degeneration
Andrew Voigt, MD, PhD
3:30 – 3:45 pm
Macrophage Recruitment to Schlemm’s Canal and VEGFA–KDR Signaling May Compensate for Age-Related Outflow Pathway Narrowing
Benjamin Thomson, PhD, Susan Quaggin, MD
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3:30 – 3:45 pm
PROX1 Deletion From Adult Mouse Schlemm’s Canal Causes Loss of Lymphatic-Like Phenotype and Ocular Hypertension
Benjamin Thomson, PhD, Sofia Lara Ochoa, Zihang Yan, Natalia Mendonca, Hao Zhang, PhD, Evan Scott, PhD, Mark Johnson, PhD
5:00 – 5:15 pm
Where You Live and What You Earn Shape Diabetic Eye Disease Severity
Arun Ahuja, Adovich Rivera, MD, PhD, Jeremy Lavine, MD, PhD, Xueqing Zhou, William Marcus, Timothy Janetos, MD, Charlesnika Evans, PhD, Abel Kho, MD, Paul Bryar, MD, Dustin French, PhD
3:30 – 5:15 pm

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Deletion From Adult Mouse Schlemm’s Canal Causes Loss of Lymphatic-Like Phenotype and Ocular Hypertension
Benjamin Thomson, PhD
5:00 – 5:15 pm

Wednesday, May 6

Association of a Residual-Based Retinal Vulnerability Index Independent of Systemic Risk Burden with Mortality
Mercy Oforiwaa Berchie, Manjot Gill, MD, Norrina Bai Allen, PhD
10:15 am – Noon
Baseline OCTA Metrics Predict 2-Year Kidney Function in Patients with Diabetes
Julia Greenwood, Amani Fawzi, MD
10:15 – 10:30 am
Association of eye Care Utilization and Social Determinants of Health Among Patients With Uveitis: A Cross-sectional Factor Analysis
Rohail Memon, Dustin French, PhD, Nikita Saladi, MD, Debra Goldstein, MD, Timothy Janetos, MD
10:15 am – Noon
Expansion of Optical Coherence Tomography Field of View through Volumetric Montaging
Raymond Fang, Daniel Kim, PhD, Zihang Yan, Fengyuanshan Xu, Raphael Tinio, Cheng Sun, PhD, Rukhsana Mirza, MD, Alex Huang, Hao Zhang, PhD
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10:15 am – Noon

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Ocular Findings in Pediatric Patients With Turner Syndrome With Genotype-Phenotype Analysis
Milina Miulli
10:15 am – Noon
Ophthalmic Manifestations of Patients with Trisomy 13
Anushree Aneja, Jennifer Rossen, MD
10:15 am – Noon
Two-step AI-based Automated Schlemm’s Canal Volumetric Segmentation for OCT
Hao Zhang, PhD, Raymond Fang, Fengyuanshan Xu, Zihang Yan, Alex Huang
10:15 am – Noon

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Myosin Light Chain Kinase (Mylk1) is Dispensable for Lens Morphogenesis, Growth, And Function
Daniel Martin Watterson, PhD
10:30 am – 10:45 am
An alkali burn-activated conjunctival epithelial cell attenuates corneal fibrosis via inhibiting the expression of collagens in corneal keratocytes
Han Peng, PhD, Xiaolin Qi, Yi-Kai Hong, Nihal Kaplan, PhD, Kurt Lu, MD, Robert Lavker, PhD
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10:45 – 11:00 am

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Improvement in Visual Acuity and Stereoacuity in Children With Strabismus Treated With a Digital Dichoptic Amblyopia Treatment in Clinical Practice
Brenda Bohnsack, MD, PhD
2:00 – 3:45 pm
Ocular Proangiogenic Macrophages That are Shared Across Species Localize Within Human Choroidal Neovascular Membranes
Andrew Voigt, MD, PhD, Joyce Gong, Jeremy Lavine, MD, PhD
3:00 – 3:15 pm
Reduction in Retinal Ganglion Cell Loss With Privosegtor in Acute Optic Neuritis: Post-hoc Analysis Of OCT Scans
Sebastian Wolf, PhD
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2:45 – 3:00 pm

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Thursday, May 7

Adherence to the STROBE Reporting Criteria Among Academic Ophthalmology Journals
Timothy Janetos, MD
8:00 – 9:45 am
Agreement Between Deep Learning-Derived Vessel Biomarkers from Vis-OCT and OCT Angiography in Healthy and Glaucomatous Eyes
Hemal Patel, MD, Hao Zhang, PhD
8:00 – 9:45 am
Assessment of the Impact of Social Determinants of Health on Outcomes in Retinopathy of Prematurity
Yisiara Aguirre Rodriguez, Gabriella Danziger, Shahin Davoudpour, PhD, Safa Rahmani, MD, Hawke Yoon, MD, Elizabeth Bolton, MD, David Ramirez, MD
8:00 – 9:45 am
Associations Between Social Determinants of Health and Treatment of Exudative Age-Related Macular Degeneration: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis
Timothy Janetos, MD, Manjot Gill, MD, Dustin French, PhD
​
8:00 – 9:45 am
CYP27A1 Variant Classification Guidance from the ClinGen Pediatric Cataract Variant Curation Expert Panel
Andy Drackley, Allison Weisman, Jennifer Rossen, MD
8:00 – 9:45 am
Curation of Gene-Disease Relationships for Crystallin Genes and Pediatric Cataracts
Alexander Ing
8:00 – 9:45 am
Volumetric 3D Montaging of Optical Coherence Tomography Applied to Human Retinas
Daniel Kim, PhD, Raymond Fang, Fengyuanshan Xu, Raphael Tinio, Cheng Sun, PhD, Rukhsana Mirza, MD, Hao Zhang, PhD
8:00 – 9:45 am
Diagnostic Performance of a Multimodal Large Language Model in the Interpretation of Fundus Photographs
Manjot Gill, MD, Saeed Mohammadi, MD, Syona Hariharan, John Brown
11:45 am – 1:30 pm
Associations Between Sleep and OCTA-Derived Retinal Microvascular Metrics in T2DM
Anya Kornfeld, Rukhsana Mirza, MD, Jay Bharat Bisen, Raphael Tinio, William Marcus, Kathryn Reid, PhD, Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD
11:45 am – 1:30 pm
Diagnostic Performance of a Multimodal Large Language Model in the Interpretation of Fundus Photographs
Saeed Mohammadi, MD, Kyle Samuel Chan, Emmanuel Angelo Sarmiento, Nicole Vecchione, Manjot Gill, MD
11:45 am – 1:30 pm
Greater Anatomical Improvements with Faricimab vs Aflibercept 2mg at 4 and 8 weeks after Injections in Treatment-Naive nAMD
Manjot Gill, MD
12:45 – 1:00 pm
Baseline Deep Capillary Plexus Ischemia Predicts 4-month Earlier Onset of Diabetic Retinopathy Complications: A Two-Year Prospective OCTA Study
Kallista Zhuang, Anna Busza, Brandon Duffy, Amani Fawzi, MD
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2:00 – 3:45 pm
Deep Capillary Perfusion Deficits and Foveal Avascular Zone Enlargement as Biomarkers of Retinal Nonperfusion in Diabetes
Anna Busza, Brandon Duffy, Kallista Zhuang, Amani Fawzi, MD
2:00 – 3:45 pm


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Gamma-Variate Reconstruction of Saturated Arterial Input Functions Improves Retinal Vascular Permeability Estimation from Fluorescein Videoangiography
Elif Kayaalp Nalbant, PhD, Amani Fawzi, MD
2:00 – 3:45 pm
Impact of Hypoglycemia and Hyperglycemia on Retinal Vascular Metrics in the AI-READI V2 Database
John Brown, Jay Bharat Bisen, Grazia Aleppo, MD, Rukhsana Mirza, MD
2:00 – 3:45 pm
Increasing Nonmydriatic Diabetic Retinopathy Photo Screenings by Outreaching to Patients Through EMR Portal Messaging
Mariam Eldeib, Khali Garland, Paul Bryar, MD, Nakia Hall, Dzejna Mezbur, DO, Adrian Mendez
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2:00 – 3:45 pm
Independent decrease in best corrected visual acuity in prediabetes
Michael Drakopoulos, MD, Jay Bharat Bisen, Raphael Tinio, Rukhsana Mirza, MD
2:00 – 3:45 pm
Outer Retinal Volume on Macular OCT Predicts 2-Year Diabetic Eye Disease Progression
Janika Shah, Niktinat Hanieh, Amani Fawzi, MD
2:00 – 3:45 pm
Social Determinants of Health Meets AI-Ready Eye Care: Web Calculator for Predicting Referable Diabetic Retinopathy
William Marcus, Arun Ahuja, Jeremy Lavine, MD, PhD, Xueqing Zhou, Timothy Janetos, MD, Charlesnika Evans, PhD, Abel Kho, MD, Paul Bryar, MD, Dustin French, PhD, Adovich Rivera, MD, PhD 
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2:30 – 2:45 pm

On-Demand Sessions

Retinal OCTA Changes Linked to PET-CT Myocardial Perfusion in Heart Transplant Patients with Coronary Allograft Vasculopathy
Jay Bharat Bisen, Michael Drakopoulos, MD, Richard Weinberg, MD, PhD, Ike Okwuosa, MD, Rukhsana Mirza, MD
 On Demand
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​NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE OPHTHALMOLOGY

The Northwestern Medicine Department of Ophthalmology is dedicated to providing the most advanced medical care; educating students, residents and fellows; and conducting high-impact research that results in the development of new knowledge and therapies for vision-threatening diseases. Our faculty members include nationally and internationally recognized specialists in cornea, glaucoma, pediatric ophthalmology, orbit and oculoplastics, ocular inflammation, retinal diseases, refractive surgery, neuro-ophthalmology, adult strabismus and comprehensive ophthalmology. More than 30 of our physicians and scientists are actively pursuing new knowledge to contribute to the development of highly advanced therapies and improve the quality of life for patients with diseases and disorders of the eyes.