Leonard Levin, MD, PhD
Professor, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences and Neurology & Neurosurgery
Dr. Leonard Levin is a tenured professor in the Departments of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences and Neurology & Neurosurgery at 捆绑SM社区. He is a physician-scientist at the Neuro, where he carries out research related to optic nerve diseases and related disorders.
Dr. Levin received a bachelor鈥檚 degree聽magna cum laude聽in Applied Mathematics at Harvard, where he did an honors thesis designing a language for computer-assisted music composition. He received his MD in the Harvard/MIT joint program in Health Science and Technology and a PhD in neurobiology, focusing on research relevant to multiple sclerosis. He then pursued an ophthalmology residency and neuro-ophthalmology fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
His research program focuses on mechanisms of retinal ganglion cell death at the molecular, tissue culture, and whole animal level. This includes the role axonal damage plays in inducing loss of retinal ganglion cells and how axons themselves undergo injury, an area common to ophthalmology and neurology, and one directly tied to optic nerve diseases. He uses advanced imaging techniques to study signaling of cell death in the retina and how this can help in the development of new drugs for optic nerve and retinal disease, including novel drugs that his laboratory has developed. Dr. Levin is particularly interested in the challenges associated with successfully translating basic science research into clinically effective therapies, and has been involved with the design and assessment of clinical trials to study neuroprotective therapies in glaucoma and other optic neuropathies. His funding has been from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the United States National Institutes of Health, the Glaucoma Foundation, the Glaucoma Research Foundation, and several others.
Dr. Levin鈥檚 research has resulted in more than 170 peer-reviewed papers, reviews, and book chapters, and 4 issued patents, all related to eye disease. He has edited five textbooks in ophthalmology or neuro-ophthalmology, including聽Neuro-Ophthalmology: The Practical Guide,聽Ocular Disease: Mechanisms and Management, and the 11th edition of聽Adler鈥檚 Physiology of the Eye. He has written chapters or edited sections of many of the major textbooks in ophthalmology. He was previously chair of the Diseases and Pathophysiology of the Visual System study section at the United States National Institutes of Health, past chair of the Association of Canadian University Professors of Ophthalmology, and currently chairs the Executive Scientific Oversight Committee for the Audacious Goals Initiative at the USA National Eye Institute, which has the major goal to restore sight to those with irreversible blindness.
Coussa RG, Merat P,聽Levin LA.聽Propagation and selectivity of axonal loss in Leber hereditary optic neuropathy.聽Sci Rep,聽in press.
Rath EZ, Hazan Z, Adamsky K, Segal ZI,聽Levin LA.聽Randomized controlled Phase 2a study of RPh201 in previous nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.聽J Neuro-Ophthalmol,聽in press.
Levin LA.聽Neuroprotection in neuro-ophthalmology.聽Asia-Pacific J Ophthalmology, 7:246-250, 2018.
Chan W, Almasieh M, Catrinescu M,聽Levin LA.聽Cobalamin-dependent superoxide scavenging in neuronal cells is a potential mechanism for vitamin B12-deprivation optic neuropathy.聽Am J Pathol, 188:160-172, 2018.
Lawlor M, Danesh-Meyer H,聽Levin LA, Davagnanam I, De Vita E, Plant GT. Glaucoma and the brain: Trans-synaptic degeneration, structural change and implications for neuroprotection.聽Surv聽Ophthalmol,聽63:296-306, 2018.
Janus DA, Lieven CJ, Crowe ME,聽Levin LA. Polyester-based microdisc systems for sustained release of neuroprotective phosphine-borane complexes.聽Pharm Dev Technol, 9:1-8, 2017.
Levin LA,聽Behar-Cohen F. The Academic-Industrial Complexity: Failure to Launch.聽Trends Pharmacol聽Sci, 38:1052-1060, 2017.
Levin LA,聽Miller JW, Zack DJ, Friedlander M, Smith LEH. Early clinical development of cell replacement therapy: Considerations for the National Eye Institute Audacious Goals Initiative.聽Ophthalmology, 124:926-934, 2017.
Almasieh M, Catrinescu M-M, Binan L, Costantino S,聽Levin LA.聽Axonal degeneration in retinal ganglion cells is associated with a membrane polarity-sensitive redox process.聽J Neurosci, 37:3824-3839, 2017.
De Moraes CG, Liebmann JM,聽Levin LA.聽Detection and measurement of clinically meaningful visual field progression in clinical trials for glaucoma.聽Prog Retin Eye Res, 56:107-147, 2017.
Levin LA,聽Crowe ME, Quigley HA. Neuroprotection for glaucoma: Requirements for clinical translation.聽Exp Eye Res, 157:34-37, 2017.
Levin LA.聽Translational pharmacology in glaucoma neuroprotection.聽Handbook Exp Pharmacol,聽242:209-230, 2017.
Almasieh M,聽Levin LA.聽Neuroprotection in glaucoma: Animal models and clinical trials.聽Annu Rev Vision Sci, 3:91-120, 2017.
Niemuth NJ, Thompson AF, Crowe ME, Lieven CJ,聽Levin LA. Intracellular disulfide reduction by phosphine-borane complexes: Mechanism of action for neuroprotection.聽Neurochem Int, 99:24-32, 2016.