Focus on: Veterinary Ophthalmology with Ron Ofri

Ron Ofri was a member of the charter class of the Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Upon his graduation he traveled to the University of Florida, where he spent the next 4 years undergoing clinical training in veterinary ophthalmology and obtaining his Ph.D. During this time Ron developed an interest in the physiology of vision, focusing on retinal electrophysiology and animal models of retinal diseases. Upon his graduation Ron returned to Israel andjoined the faculty of his alma mater, where he is currently a Professor in Veterinary Ophthalmology and winner of numerous Teacher of the Year awards. At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ron expanded his research interests to include to includeclinical veterinary ophthalmology (focusing on glauocoma and retinal diseases) and retinal gene therpay. His groundbreaking work on retinal gene therapy on a herd of sheep with naturally occuring day blindness has resulted in restoration of vision intreated animals for >6 years, and has paved the way to FDA approval of Phase I/IIa clinical trials in humans patients. Ron is also a very popular international speaker, having been invited to talk in more than 40 countries and 6 continents, lecturing incontinuing education seminars, national & international meetings, and world congresses for general practitioners including BSAVA, SEVC, WSAVA, WVC and NAVC/VMX. He also lectures frequently in advanced training courses for veterinaryophthalmologists, including lectureship at the Basic Science Course of the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists (where he has been speaking since 2002) and numerous other forums. Ron has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, is a contributing author to the Gelatt's classic textbook Veterinary Ophthalmology (3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th editions) as well as co-author of the popular textbook Slatter's Fundamentals of Veterinary Ophthalmology (4th, 5th and 6th editions, below). Ron is aDiplomate of the European College of Veterinary Ophthalmology (ECVO), a former ECVO Executive Board member and Scientific Committee member and in 2002-2005 he served as President of the European Society of Veterinary Ophthalmology.