Botond Roska

Botond Roska is a Professor at the Faculty of Science, University of Basel, Switzerland, and previously served as Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel since 2014. He is the Founding Director of the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), established in 2018. His academic career includes serving as Senior Group Leader (2010-2019) and Junior Group Leader (2005-2010) at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel.

Born in 1969 in Hungary, Roska obtained his M.D. at the Semmelweis Medical School, a Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of California, Berkeley, and studied genetics and virology as a Harvard Society Fellow at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Roska's research focuses on understanding the visual system at the level of cell types and circuits, with particular emphasis on the retina, thalamus, and cortex. His work aims to find ways to repair visual dysfunction and restore vision in blind individuals. He investigates how the organization of cell types and circuits in the nervous system, when combined with cellular engineering, can be used to design new therapies to fight blindness.

Analysis of Roska's recent publications reveals a strong focus on single-cell resolution studies of the retina, development of gene therapy approaches for vision restoration, and detailed mapping of visual neural circuits. His work spans multiple disciplines including neuroscience, ophthalmology, genetics, and molecular biology, with a clear translational focus toward developing treatments for visual impairments.

Dr. Roska has received numerous prestigious awards throughout his career:

• 1997: Fulbright Fellow
• 2001: Bearden Memorial Award for Biophysics
• 2002: Harvard Junior Fellow
• 2006: Marie Curie Excellence Grant
• 2009: EMBO Young Investigator
• 2010: ERC Starting Grant and VIVA Award
• 2011: Alcon Award and EMBO membership
• 2013: Alfred Vogt Award
• 2015: ERC Advanced Grant
• 2016: Cogan Award
• 2018: Bressler Prize and Alden W. Spencer Award
• 2019: Louis-Jeantet Prize, Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary, Cloëtta Prize, and Semmelweis Budapest Award
• 2020: ERC Advanced Grant and Körber European Science Prize
• 2024: Wolf Prize in Medicine (for sight-saving and vision restoration to blind people using optogenetics)

As a principal investigator, Roska has secured significant research funding including multiple ERC grants (Starting Grant in 2010, Advanced Grants in 2015 and 2020), a Marie Curie Excellence Grant, and the VIVA Award. His laboratory has mentored numerous researchers who have gone on to publish impactful work in top-tier journals. The collaborative nature of his research is evident from the multi-institutional authorship of his publications.

Dr. Roska founded and directs the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), which brings together basic scientists and clinicians to develop treatments for eye diseases. His laboratory employs advanced techniques including single-cell analysis, viral vector engineering, optogenetics, and neural circuit mapping to advance our understanding of the visual system and develop novel therapeutic approaches.