Assistant Professor in Ophthalmology
Dr. Jason Comander is an Alumni of Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, where he also did his residency and fellowship in Ophthalmology. Jason’s research focuses on understanding the genetic causes of inherited retinal degenerations in order to develop better diagnostic treatment options. Dr. Comander is currently working on several projects, including:
• Genetic heterogeneity among patients with pericentral retinitis pigmentosa
• Functional characterization of human genetic variation in retinitis pigmentosa
• Translating optogenetic vision restoration therapies to a primate model (collaborator)
Jason is a member of the Mass. Eye and Ear Retina and Inherited Retinal Disorders Services. For more information on his clinic or to schedule an appointment, patients should click here.
Contact Information:
Phone: 617-573-3804
Dr. Manian earned his Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the Center for Stem Cell Research, Department of Biotechnology/Christian Medical College, India, 2018. His thesis research focused on deciphering the molecular mechanisms involved during somatic cell reprogramming. During a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Rochester, he was involved in designing and developing tissue mimetic of the human retina using iPSC-derived cells and delineating the role of RPE, choriocapillaris, and systemic factors in the development of AMD and other macular dystrophies.
Dr. Manian joined Ocular Genomics Institute in April 2022 and he works as a postdoctoral research fellow in Comander Lab. His current interests include high throughput functional phenotyping of DNA variants for the purpose of improving the genetic diagnosis of inherited retinal diseases, as well as the development of genome editing techniques for inherited retinal disease treatment.
Kannan_Manian@meei.harvard.edu
Dr. Leila Azizzadeh graduated in Biochemistry from institute of Biochemistry and bBiophysics, university of Tehran, Iran, where she studied the disease mechanism of Retinitis Pigmentosa caused by mutations in the splicing factor gene PRPF31. She did her first post-doctoral training in the Insitute de la Vision, France, where she used IPSCs derived retinal organoids and RPE cells for modeling of retinal degenerative disease. She joined the Ocular Genomics Institute in April 2022, where she is involved in functional genomic characterization for retinal disease.
leila_azizzadeh@meei.harvard.edu
Ha Eun Cho is a research technician at the Ocular Genomics Institute at MEEI, working under Dr. Jason Comander’s supervision. She graduated from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in biology, specializing in Cell, Molecular Biology, and Genetics from Boston University. Her current interests are understanding the pathogenicity associated with RPE65 and Rhodopsin (IRDs) to improve the methods for gene therapy.
hecho@meei.harvard.edu