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Gustavo D. Aguirre is Professor of Medical Genetics and Ophthalmology at The School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He earned his undergraduate, veterinary, and doctoral degrees at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also completed a residency in ophthalmology in the School of Veterinary Medicine before serving as a post-doctoral fellow at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Aguirre joined the faculty at Penn in 1973, where he rose to hold joint professorial appointments in the veterinary and medical schools. Between 1992-2004 he was at the James A. Baker Institute of Cornell University as the Caspary Professor of Ophthalmology. His work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Foundation Fighting Blindness, Morris Animal Foundation, and The Seeing Eye, Inc. Dr. Aguirre has received numerous awards among which are an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Göteborg, Sweden, the WSAVA/Waltham International Award for Scientific Achievement, The Foundation Fighting Blindness Trustee Award, Scientist of the Year, Heart Sight Foundation Fighting Blindness Award, The O.N.C.E. International Prize for R&D in Biomedicine and New Technologies for the Blind, and he was a co-recipient of the Paul Kayser International Award in Retina Research Investigators in Dr. Aguirre’s laboratory are actively engaged in multiple research projects relating to the inheritance of retinal degenerations in dogs, humans, and other mammals. These include efforts to identify the genes and locate the mutations associated with several separately inherited forms of progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), a significant disease of dogs that is also the genetic analog of retinitis pigmentosa, a group of retinal degenerations inherited in human families. In parallel to these studies, Dr. Aguirre is involved in developing or applying novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of inherited retinal degenerations. Two of these, neurotrophic factors and gene replacement therapy, have been validated in his dog models, and are in Phase 2 (neurotrophic factors) or in Phase 1 (gene therapy for RPE65-LCA) clinical trials. |
