Tom Mendel, MD, PhD

I am a retina surgeon scientist at The Ohio State University (OSU) and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where I serve as an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology. Clinically, I practice both adult and pediatric retina, with a particular focus on inherited retinal disease. My clinic cares for over 200 inherited retinal disease patients with a team of caregivers, including an ophthalmically specialized genetic counselor in Taylor Sabato, MPH, MMSc, LGC, and a dedicated inherited retinal disease clinical care coordinator in Lindsey Pyers, COA.

I also direct a research team and translational laboratory to pioneer new gene therapy approaches for my many inherited retinal disease patients. I was trained in Luxturna therapy at the University of Michigan’s Kellogg Eye Center and saw first-hand the impact of restorative gene therapy. With that in mind, I founded my laboratory to extend the early success of Luxturna to other inherited retinal diseases. My particular research features a combination of novel surgical and molecular approaches and is carried out within the OSU Gene Therapy Institute, which is comprised of an experienced interdisciplinary team of gene therapy investigators whose expertise ranges from neurosurgery to biomedical engineering.