2027 Future Vision Foundation Laureates

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 Dr. Joseph Carroll, PhD, is a professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin and director of its Advanced Ocular Imaging Program, where he investigates how the structure of the living human retina relates to visual function in both health and disease. His work uses high-resolution, noninvasive technologies—including adaptive-optics imaging and optical coherence tomography—to visualize photoreceptors, retinal blood vessels, and other cellular features that conventional clinical imaging cannot resolve. He applies these methods to inherited retinal diseases such as albinism, achromatopsia, retinitis pigmentosa, and Usher syndrome, with the goal of improving disease understanding, patient selection, and outcome monitoring for emerging sight-preserving and restorative therapies. 

Dr. David Gamm, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison whose research focuses on using human pluripotent stem cells to understand retinal development and develop treatments for degenerative blinding diseases. His laboratory has pioneered the creation of three-dimensional human retinal organoids containing photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium, enabling disease modeling and testing of potential gene, drug, and cell-based therapies. The long-term goal of his work is to preserve or restore sight in conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration by replacing or rescuing damaged retinal cells.

Dr. Daniel Palanker, PhD, is a Stanford University professor of ophthalmology and electrical engineering whose research combines physics, optics, and neuroengineering to create diagnostic, therapeutic, surgical, and prosthetic technologies for eye disease. He is best known for developing the wireless photovoltaic retinal prosthesis, or PRIMA system, in which near-infrared images projected from specialized glasses power a subretinal implant that stimulates surviving retinal neurons. His work aims to restore useful central vision for people with degenerative retinal conditions, including geographic atrophy from age-related macular degeneration, while preserving their remaining peripheral vision.