Dr. Donald Brown is an associate professor at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, UC Irvine School of Medicine and an outstanding molecular biologist with research experience in corneal and retinal diseases. Dr. Brown’s primary research now deals with the glaucoma, a major cause of blindness worldwide.

The eye is filled with fluid that constantly drains back into our bloodstreams through channels in the eyeball. Glaucoma develops when the drainage system clogs up and fluid pressure builds up within the eye. As this fluid pressure increases, it damages the optic nerve’s sensitive fibers and they begin to die. Dr. Brown and his team use high powered lasers and microscopes to create three-dimensional images to examine the optic nerve and determine how the increased pressure causes vision loss. His research will hopefully minimize vision loss for glaucoma patients in the future.

Dr. Brown is a molecular biologist who received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in Denver. He is a member of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and the International Society of Eye Research. An author of many peer-reviewed papers, he has served as ad hoc reviewer on numerous journals.