Research Opportunities in Ophthalmology

Summer Research Scholars Program

The Wilmer Eye Institute invites students to apply for a summer research elective between the first and second year of medical school.

Learn more about the Summer Research Scholars Program

Current Faculty Research Project Opportunities

Wilmer Faculty Current Opportunities Research Interests Required Skills
Bonnielin Swenor
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Capstone project for an MPH student
  • Low vision and aging
  • disability inclusion
  • health care outcomes
Understanding of statistics, hard working, collaborative, prior clinical research experience is a plus
Xiangrong Kong
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Capstone project for an MPH student
  • retinal degenerations
  • clinical research
Data management
Tom Johnson
  • Summer Scholarly Concentration Project (MS1)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Basic and translational neuroscience
  • retina and optic nerve
  • stem cell biology
None needed, but previous experience in basic science techniques helpful
Nakul Shekhawat
  • Summer Scholarly Concentration Project (MS1)
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Capstone project for an MPH student
  • Corneal blindness (microbial keratitis)
  • Cataract surgery
  • Tele-ophthalmology and artificial intelligence
  • Global ophthalmology
None needed. Students can assist with manuscript writing, clinical record review, data collection, and data entry/cleanup.
Divya Srikumaran
  • Summer Scholarly Concentration Project (MS1)
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Capstone project for an MPH student
  • corneal transplants
  • resident education (clinical research)
completion of IRB training and some experience with EPIC and or stats preferred but not required
Andrew Carey
  • Summer Scholarly Concentration Project (MS1)
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
Neuro-ophthalmology clinical research, mostly retrospective review Chart review, data entry
Jithin Yohannan
  • Summer Scholarly Concentration Project (MS1)
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Capstone project for an MPH student
  • Glaucoma Testing
  • Machine Learning
  • Big Data
Data Collection/Cleanup, Writing, Data Analysis (not required)
Fasika Woreta
  • Summer Scholarly Concentration Project (MS1)
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Capstone project for an MPH student
  • ocular trauma
  • medical education
  • high-value care and quality improvement
None needed
Akrit Sodhi
  • Summer Scholarly Concentration Project (MS1)
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Ocular vascular disease
  • basic science
  • clinical/translational research
basic science research experience OR statistics
Jefferson Doyle
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Extended duration project (1+yrs) on a part-time basis
Genetic eye diseases - patient clinic studies or preclinical therapy trials in mouse models None required
Uri Soiberman
  • Summer Scholarly Concentration Project (MS1)
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Keratoconus
  • clinical and basic science
None required, although prior experience preferred
Pradeep Ramulu
  • Summer Scholarly Concentration Project (MS1)
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Capstone project for an MPH student
  • Impact of visual impairment on the individual and how it manifests in their daily life
  • Patient-centered research projects in glaucoma.
Ability to work in a team and interact with patients. Analytical and writing skills
Mona Kaleem
  • Ongoing project. Appropriate for any level.
Development of educational material: Help editing an educational podcast and audio book and posting them to our website. Interest in learning how to do sound editing. Ability to work with a podcast hosting system to upload audio files
Shameema Sikder
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
AI and cataract surgery education Computer science background helpful
Mandeep Singh
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
Inherited retinal diseases and stem cells:
  • Clinical research: Inherited retinal diseases, genotype-phenotype correlations, database of >500 genotyped/ phenotyped cases;
  • Artificial intelligence - automated diagnosis/staging of rare retinopathies
  • Translational research - retinal stem cell transplantation in animal models
Excel/ basic biostatistics
Mira M Sachdeva
  • Summer Scholarly Concentration Project (MS1)
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • Diabetic retinopathy
  • macular degeneration
  • retinal vascular disease
  • surgical/treatment outcomes
For clinical projects, organization and database management experience helpful but not required; For basic science projects, some lab experience helpful but not required.
Fatemeh Rajaii
  • Summer Scholarly Concentration Project (MS1)
  • 1-2 month research electives (MS II-MS IV)
  • Year long research for students taking year off before applying to residency
  • clinical projects looking at outcomes of periocular and orbital disease
  • basic science projects looking at both uveal melanoma biology and orbital adipogenesis