Luciano V. Del Priore

Luciano V. Del Priore, MD, PhD serves as the Robert R. Young Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at Yale School of Medicine, where he also holds the position of Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science and Chief of Ophthalmology at Yale New Haven Hospital. Previously, he was the Pierre G. Jenkins Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at the Medical University of South Carolina, and held faculty positions at Columbia University and Washington University School of Medicine.

Dr. Del Priore specializes in the surgical and medical treatment of retinal diseases, with particular expertise in age-related macular degeneration, retinal detachment, diabetic retinopathy, and macular holes. His research focuses on the cell biology of retinal degenerations and cell-based therapies for conditions including retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt's disease, and atrophic age-related macular degeneration. He has made significant contributions to understanding the role of the retinal pigment epithelium in maintaining the choriocapillaris and how its dysfunction affects visual recovery after surgery.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong emphasis on applying advanced computational techniques to understand retinal disease progression, including deep learning frameworks for medical image segmentation and statistical methods for analyzing longitudinal disease trajectories. His work bridges clinical ophthalmology with cutting-edge computational approaches to improve diagnosis and treatment of retinal conditions.

• America's Top Doctors (2019)
• Life Fellow, American Academy of Ophthalmology (2018)
• Senior Achievement Award, American Academy of Ophthalmology (2016)
• Distinguished Alumnus Award, Wilmer Eye Institute (2012)
• Lew R. Wasserman Award, Research to Prevent Blindness (1999)
• Senior Honor Award, American Society of Retina Specialists

Dr. Del Priore maintains an active research laboratory focused on the biology of the retina in health and disease. He has been involved in clinical trials of stem cell-derived therapies for retinal degenerations and has published extensively in peer-reviewed literature. His work has led to better understanding of disease progression in geographic atrophy, Stargardt's disease, and choroideremia, with the goal of improving clinical trial design and drug efficacy assessment.