
David Huang (黄大衛), MD, PhD
Director
Dr. David Huang is the Associate Director and Director of Research of Casey Eye Institute, and the Peterson Professor of Ophthalmology and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Dr. Huang earned BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from MIT, and MD-PhD degrees from the joint Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program. He received ophthalmology residency training at the Doheny Eye Institute/University of Southern California and fellowship training in cornea, external disease and refractive surgery at Emory University School of Medicine.
Dr. Huang is known for his innovations in applying laser and optical technology to eye diseases. Dr. Huang is a co-inventor of optical coherence tomography (OCT), which is a commonly used ophthalmic imaging technology at 30 million procedures per year. His seminal article on optical coherence tomography, published in Science in 1991, has been cited more than 14,000 times. He has 33 issued patents in the areas of OCT, OCT angiography, mobile health testing, and tissue engineering and laser surgery. He has been the principal investigator of 5 National Institutes of Health research grants in the past two decades. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles with over 40,000 citations. He has edited 11 books. Since the invention of OCT, Dr. Huang has contributed to the development of polarization-sensitive OCT, swept-source OCT, anterior eye OCT, Doppler OCT, and OCT angiography technologies. He pioneered new applications for these technologies in anterior eye diseases, glaucoma, and retinal diseases.
Dr. Huang has received the Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award - the largest prize given for ophthalmic research, the Jonas Friedenwald Award - one of the highest awards from the Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology, the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize – given by the National Academy of Engineering for outstanding bioengineering achievement that improves the human condition, and the Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Inventors, the Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology, and the American Ophthalmological Society.
Dr. Huang leads the Center for Ophthalmic Optics and Lasers (www.coollab.net). He is a founder of GoCheck, the maker of the GoCheck Kids (www.GoCheckKids.com) smartphone app that has screened over 2 million children for amblyopia risk factors. He is the founding president of the International Ocular Circulation Society (www.OcularCirculation.org).
Bibliography (335 publications, 46,466 citations, H-index 82): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/david.huang.1/bibliography/40347588/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending
Research Activities:
OCT angiography
Glaucoma diagnosis
Corneal collagen crosslinking
OCT-based corneal topography and tomography
OCT-based corneoscleral topography for scleral lens fitting
IOL power calculation for post-refractive surgery eyes
Laser thermal conjunctivoplasty
OCT contrast agent
OCT speed and resolution enhancement
OCT elastography
LASIK nomogram
Clinical Interests:
Refractive surgery (LASIK & PRK)
Phototherapeutic keratectomy
Corneal collagen crosslinking
Keratoconus
Corneal scars
Corneal dystrophies
Refractive surgery complications

Yali Jia, PhD
Associate Director
Dr. Yali Jia is a Professor of Ophthalmology and Biomedical Engineering, Jennie P. Weeks Professor of Ophthalmology, and co-founder of International Ocular Circulation Society (https://ocularcirculation.org). Dr. Jia is a world-renown expert in advanced ophthalmic imaging and a leading pioneer in functional optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA). This is well demonstrated by her >180 peer-reviewed articles, with >13000 citations (h-index=48), and 6 co-edited books. Her first invention, SSADA, was a revolutionary breakthrough in translating OCTA from fundamental lab research to clinical deployments. Her technique has been rapidly adopted by >1000 international research and clinical centers. As the PI on several federal, foundation, or industry-sponsored studies for clinical translation of OCTA, she owns >10 issued and licensed patents. Her recent remarkable accomplishments include OCT oximetry (PNAS, 2020), and the use of AI to detect and classify retinal pathologies (PRER, 2021). Her outstanding contributions to this field have been well recognized by receiving the prestigious Special Scholar Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, Carl Camras Translation Research Award from Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Dr. Jia has also been inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and a Senior Member of the National Inventor Academy.
Academic Awards:
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William & Mary Greve Special Scholar Award by Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB)
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NIH/NEI R01 R01EY027833 Wide-field and projection-resolved optical coherence tomography angiography in diabetic retinopathy
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NIH/NIDDK DP3 DK104397 Functional Optical Coherence Tomography-derived Biomarkers for Diabetic Retinopathy
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NIH/NEI R01 EY024544 OCT Angiography for Neovascular Age-related Macular Degeneration
Areas of Interest:
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Retinal imaging
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Optical Coherence Tomography
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Artificial Intelligence
Faculty

Ou Tan, PhD
Research Associate Professor
Dr. Ou Tan (Click here for Curriculum Vitae) is a Research Assistant Professor in Casey Eye Institute. He joined the faculty at Casey Eye Institute in 2010. Dr. Tan earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 2000. He completed his post-doctoral research at National Institute of Radiology Science, Chiba, Japan, in 2002. He acted as a research associate in Cleveland Clinic Foundation from 2002 to 2004. He was an assistant professor of research ophthalmology in Doheny Eye Institute from 2004 to 2010. His research interests includes medical image analysis and computer aided diagnosis in glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration with optical coherence tomography.

Yifan Jian, PhD
Assistant Professor
Dr. Yifan Jian (Click here for Curriculum Vitae) is an Assistant Professor of Casey Eye Institute since 2018. He earned his Ph.D. degree from Simon Fraser University, Canada in 2014. Dr. Jian continued his research at Simon Fraser University as a University Research Associate until he joined faculty of Casey Eye Institute. Dr. Jian developed GPU accelerated software for real time volumetric OCT, and Sensorless Adaptive Optics OCT for ophthalmic imaging. His research interests include optical imaging, parallel computing and artificial intelligence. Dr. Jian is actively recruiting postdoctoral fellows and PhD students.

Yan Li, PhD
Associate Professor
Dr. Yan Li (Click here for Curriculum Vitae) earned her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. She is currently a Research Assistant Professor in Casey Eye Institute. She received her master's degree in Biomedical Engineering at the Zhejiang University, China, in 2000. Her research interests include medical image processing, optical coherence tomography for imaging the corneal and anterior segment of the eye, planning refractive surgeries, automated anterior chamber cell counting in uveitis grading, mechanism of angle-closure glaucoma, and guiding the treatment of anterior eye diseases with optical coherence tomography.
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Siyu Chen, PhD
Assistant Professor
Dr. Siyu Chen earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2017. He completed his postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and joined Oregon Health & Science University as Assistant Professor in 2022. Dr. Chen’s research projects investigated visible light optical coherence tomography (OCT), OCT retinal oximetry, ultrahigh resolution OCT and functional retinal imaging. His research interests include applying next generation imaging technology to facilitate the diagnosis, monitoring, and understanding of eye diseases.
Research Coordinators

Denzil Romfh, OD
Dr. Denny currently works as a clinical research manager in the COOL lab. He manages subject recruitment and OCT imaging projects across all pertinent clinical specialties. He earned a BS in Biology from Texas A&M University and a PhD in Optometry from Pacific University. Denny has previously worked in specialty eye care clinics, specifically a Retina Disease private practice in Texas for 11 years and the Cornea Disease clinic here at CEI-OHSU for 7 years.

Chinmay Deshpande,
M. Optom, FIACLE (Australia)
Chinmay is working as a research assistant. He earned his Master of Optometry from BV (DU) Medical College School of Optometry, Pune India. He was working as an Assistant Professor in same institute & consulting optometrist in a private practice in India. He is a ‘Fellow of International Association of Contact Lens Educators’ (Australia). He has presented his work in various International & National Optometry Conferences and has two papers published in Delhi Journal of Ophthalmology. He has written articles for ‘The Indian Optician’.
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Humberto Martinez, COT
Humberto is a research coordinator in the COOL Lab. He is currently working on the anterior eye disease studies as well as assisting in the glaucoma and retinal studies. He is a certified ophthalmic technician with experience in general ophthalmology since 2014. He collects data including OCT imaging and other ancillary testing from study patients.

George Pacheco, COA, BS
George is a research assistant/study coordinator for our Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Anterior Eye Disease studies. He is a Certified Ophthalmic Assistant and has been in the field of ophthalmology since 2006 with a focus on diagnostic testing and ophthalmic imaging. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Critical Analysis (Film Studies) from Portland State University and is now pursuing a Master’s Degree in Health Communications.

Kevin Lathrop
Kevin is a research coordinator in the COOL Lab. He is currently working on the Diabetic retinopathy studies as well as assisting in the cornea and MS studies. He has experience in general ophthalmology since 2017. Prior to working in ophthalmology he has worked in optometry and was an optician. He collects data including OCT imaging and other ancillary testing from study patients. Kevin is interested in going to optometry school.
Assistant Staff Scientists

Tristan T. Hormel, PhD
Tristan Hormel is a postdoctoral scholar. He earned his PhD in physics from the University of Oregon, and his research interests include OCTA image processing and data analysis.
Biostatistition

Libby White, BS
Libby White is a biostatistician at the Casey Eye Institute. Libby earned her B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Vermont in 2016 and worked as a research assistant at the Casey Eye Institute from 2018 to 2020, researching glaucoma in mouse and rat models. She will obtain her M.S. in Biostatistics from the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health in May of 2022. Libby is the current president of the American Statistical Association's Portland chapter (PASA), a position through which she promotes sharing research among fellow local statisticians.
Research Fellows
Clara Llorens Quintana, PhD
Dr. Clara Llorens Quintana earned her MSc in Advanced Optometry and Vision Science from the University of Valencia (Spain) and her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (Poland). Her main interest includes image analysis for the characterization of anterior eye ocular structures and the diagnosis of anterior eye diseases.


Yukun Guo, MS
Yukun Guo is a visiting scholar. He earned his master's degree in computer science from University of Jinan in 2017. His research interests are image segmentation and machine learning.

Shuibin Ni, MS
Shuibin Ni is a research assistant. He earned his master’s degree in electronic science and technology in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. His research interests focus on handheld OCT project and optical imaging
Min Gao, MS

Min Gao is a research assistant. She earned her master's degree in communication and information system from Shandong Normal University in 2019. Her research interests are image processing and machine learning.

Kai Neuhaus, PhD
Dr. Kai Neuhaus is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Casey Eye Institute since 2022. He received his Ph.D. from the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG), in 2018. Kai worked for many years in the software industry. He co-founded Compact Imaging Inc. Limerick, Ireland, developing low-cost optical coherence tomography (OCT) systems for technical and medical applications. Before joining the Casey Eye Institute, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at NUIG Tissue Optics and Microcirculation Imaging (TOMI),researching multimodal imaging of human skin using OCT. One of his research interests is noise analysis in OCT signals, signal and image processing, and the application of machine learning. Kai is a member of SPIE, IEEE, OSA, and IOP.
PhD Students

Jie Wang, MS
Jie Wang is a COOL Lab research assistant and a Ph.D. student in the Biomedical Engineering Department at OHSU. Jie’s research interests are digital image processing and pattern recognition.

Omkar Thaware,
B Optom, MSVS
Omkar is a PhD student in the Biomedical engineering department at OHSU. He earned a Bachelor in clinical Optometry from BVDM University, India, and a Masters in vision science from Pacific University. Omkar has worked as an optometry practitioner and a teaching faculty in India. His research interest includes an advancement in corneal collagen cross linking surgical procedure and anterior segment OCT imaging.

Shanjida Khan
Shanjida is a PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering department at OHSU. She earned her BSc degree in Physics from Drew University in 2020. Her current research interest lies in the area of optical imaging.

PengXiao Zang
Pengxiao Zang is a PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering Department at OHSU. He earned his master’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Shandong Normal University in 2017. His research interests are image processing and machine learning algorithm for the Optical Coherence Tomography related images.

Guangru (Ben)
Guangru (Ben) is a Ph.D. student of the Biomedical Engineering Department at OHSU. He comes from Guangdong China, and graduated from the Southern University of Science and Technology with a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering. His main research interest is advancing the hardware and software support of OCT systems.

Kabir Hossain earned his Ph.D in Photonics Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in 2019. He received his BS and MS in computer engineering from Chonnam National University (CNU), South Korea in 2011 and 2013, respectively. Before doing his Ph.D., he was working as a Sr. Software Engineer at Samsung Electronics, Bangladesh. He completed his postdoctoral training at The University of Alabama (UA) and joined Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) as a postdoctoral researcher in May 2022. His research experience includes image, wearable signal processing, food intake detection and machine learning.
Lab Manager
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Jessica Mahlum
Jessica recently joined the team as the COOL Lab Manager. She received her B.A. in Marketing & Business Management .