- Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University
Dr. Mathieu Bakhoum is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at Yale School of Medicine and a physician-scientist with clinical training in ophthalmology and vitreoretinal surgery. At the Yale Eye Center, he cares for patients with complex retinal diseases including age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinal detachment, epiretinal membrane, and retinal artery and vein occlusions.
His laboratory at Yale School of Medicine pursues two research areas with direct clinical applications. The first focuses on defining the mechanisms that drive metastasis in uveal melanoma, a lethal eye cancer. His goal is to translate these discoveries into non-invasive biomarkers for diagnosis and metastatic surveillance, and to identify druggable targets for both primary and metastatic disease. This work has identified a novel mechanism by which cancer cells evolve toward greater aggression.
The second area capitalizes on the ability to visualize individual cellular layers of the retina during routine eye examination, using this information to detect underlying systemic diseases. Dr. Bakhoum has demonstrated that retinal ischemic perivascular lesions (RIPLs) can serve as a biomarker for underlying cardiovascular disease — enabling early detection and intervention that may slow disease progression or avert catastrophic events such as stroke or heart attack.