My ultimate goal as a clinician-scientist is to improve vision in children and adults with retinal disorders. As a clinician, I specialize in diseases and surgery of the retina and vitreous as well as management of acquired and inherited pediatric retinal disorders. I’ve had extensive medical and surgical training in vitreoretinal disorders, including macular degeneration, retinal dystrophies and complex adult and pediatric vitreoretinal surgery. As a basic research scientist, I have been studying the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis and survival during periods of neuronal and retinal stress for over 16 years. My PhD training in neuronal apoptosis and post-PhD work in photoreceptor cell death has provided me with a unique expertise in designing, executing and analyzing cell death and survival assays in different experimental paradigms, including various cell lines and in vivo models of neuronal and retinal diseases in rodents. I have used these models extensively to identify small molecule inhibitors of apoptosis in cell lines, primary neurons, and photoreceptors. My current work focuses primarily on the metabolic regulation of photoreceptor death. Proteomic analysis of the subretinal fluid samples collected from children and adults with retinal detachment identified key metabolic proteins as potential mediators of photoreceptor cell death. Based on this observation, I generated in vitro and in vivo models to study metabolic regulation of photoreceptor death and demonstrated that metabolic reprogramming is a novel strategy for photoreceptor neuroprotection in retinal degeneration.