The Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute is the largest US department of ophthalmology. Founded nearly 100 years ago in 1925, it was the first university-based department of ophthalmology to combine clinical care, research and education within a single building. Wilmer’s research program has grown tremendously in its size, depth, and breadth over time, and has consistently been recognized by external groups as the best research program within ophthalmology. Per the 2023 Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research rankings of NIH funding, Johns Hopkins had the only Ophthalmology Department with over $30 million dollars in funding, 67% more than the third ranked department, twice the fourth-ranked department, and 9-times greater than the median department receiving any level of funding. Overall research funding, including foundation grants, crossed the $40 million dollar mark in 2019, and 8% of all NIH grants going to ophthalmology departments went to Wilmer in 2023. Currently, 28 Wilmer faculty have NEI R00/R01/R21/UG1 funding, while 6 have NEI-funded K award funding.

Physical resources to support eye research at Johns Hopkins are plentiful, and promote both collaboration across disciplines and equipment sharing. In 2009, Wilmer opened the Robert H. And Clarice Smith Building, a 150,000 square foot research building on the medical campus. Completion of this building allowed nearly all Wilmer scientists to be housed under a single roof, and recruitment of scientists in high-leverage areas including imaging, bioengineering, nanotechnology and drug delivery, zebrafish genetics, and retinal biology.

As a large department with strong funding, Wilmer has a major presence in each of the 6 core NEI program areas:

• Retinal disease
• Corneal disease
• Lens/cataract
• Glaucoma and optic neuropathy
• Strabismus, amblyopia, and visual processing
• Low vision and blindness rehabilitation

Each program area has at least one matching clinical division in which residents obtain clinical training and has fellowship training available for pursuit after residency completion. Given the rarity of clinical fellowships in some disciplines (i.e. low vision rehabilitation), Wilmer is the rare US programs meeting this criterion. Additionally, Wilmer has active research programs in each core program areas (Figure), with research performed both by clinician-scientists as well as basic science labs. Wilmer also has numerous active clinician-scientists in clinical fields (i.e. oculoplastics) too small to represent an NEI focus area.

From 1995-2020, Wilmer has produced 30 residents who have gone to careers as NIH-funded clinician scientists (Table 2). Nearly all Wilmer residents engage in scholarly activity during their residency. Residents present their research at the annual Wilmer Residents meeting in May/June, which serves as a day of learning (no clinics/OR) for the entire institute. The meeting also includes a Mitchell Prize session, for which residents must submit a complete manuscript reflecting work done entirely during their residency to a review committee. This manuscript, along with the research presentation, are graded by the committee, with monetary prizes given for the first ($10,000), second ($5,000), and third place ($2,500) research projects. Seven of the 24 unique Mitchell Prize awardees have gone onto K award funding. This strong research tradition reflects a commitment towards resident research at the departmental, faculty, and resident level.

• Mentored development of a research plan to guide work during the research period.
• Development, with mentor and project leadership help, of a training plan.
• Acccess to numerous visiting speakers through the Wilmer Seminar Series and Wilmer Afternoon Research Meeting (WARM)
• Access to coursework through the Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine, Engineering, Public Health, and Arts and Sciences
• In-house workshops in paper writing, grant writing, career development, and life as a clinician scientist.
• Formal review of research plans and progress by a committee of Wilmer clinician-scientists.
• Formal monitoring for burnout.