Moorfields cornea focus 2025

The 2025 Cornea Focus Meeting will take place on 21 November 2025. The topic will be corneal nerves.

The Moorfields cornea focus meeting is a non-promotional meeting supported by an educational grant from Santen UK and organised and charied by Professor Sajjad Ahmad, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at Moorfields Hospital. Each year the meeting focuses on a different topic.

You can hear more from Mr Ahmad, speaking at the 2023 Cornea focus meeting, by watching the short video below:

The 2025 meeting will be held on 21 November at the Royal Society of Medicine, London, UK and will focus on corneal nerves.

We have an exciting agenda featuring a range of expert speakers exploring corneal nerves; from neurotrophic keratopathy to the latest advancements in corneal neuralgia and complex case management.

This is a hybrid event that you can join in-person at the RSM or virtually via live stream.

Who is the course for?

This course is aimed at ophthalmologists, optmetrists, nurses and allied health professionals wishing to update their knowledge about diseases of the cornea.

Accreditation

A certificate of attendance will be awarded at the end of the course. CPD certifcation will be applied for, including GOC points.

Book Now

Date	Location	Time	Seats	Price
21/11/2025	In-person at The Royal Society of Medicine, London		71	£75.00
21/11/2025	Online via Zoom			£0.00

Taught by

Sajjad Ahmad

Sajjad Ahmad is a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon and the Lead for Experimental Medicine at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK. His expertise is in corneal and external eye diseases, particularly inflammatory ocular surface disorders and ocular surface reconstruction. He holds an honorary Associate Clinical Professor position at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, where he runs a laboratory group focusing on corneal stem cell biology and the development of cellular therapies for the eye. Dr Ahmad’s research also investigates translational medicine, analysing drugs, cell therapies and surgical devices for the eye through the regulatory pathway to first-in-human or first-in-eye clinical trials. He is currently running two Phase 1 clinical trials, including a Medical Research Council-funded trial. He is an Ophthalmic Advisor to the European Medicines Agency and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). He also works with the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) to evaluate ophthalmic therapies for National Health Service (NHS) application.

Mark Rosenblatt

Mark I. Rosenblatt, MD, PhD, MBA, MHA has been the Executive Dean of the University of Illinois College of Medicine since 2019 and was appointed as the G. Stephen Irwin Executive Dean in 2023. He has also served as Chief Executive Officer of the University of Illinois Hospital and Clinics since 2024, and previously as Interim CEO since 2023. Dr. Rosenblatt was appointed Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in 2023, and previously served as the Illinois Lions/Charles I. Young Chair and Professor of Ophthalmology since 2014. Prior to becoming Executive Dean, Dr. Rosenblatt served as Head of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. In addition, he served as Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program from 2019 to 2022. Before joining the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Dr. Rosenblatt was a faculty member at Weill Cornell Medical College from 2008 to 2014, including serving a term as Vice Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology. Dr. Rosenblatt is an internationally recognized clinician-scientist. As Director of the Corneal Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, he leads groups of scientists investigating the mechanism of corneal peripheral nerve regeneration following injury, and the use of nanoengineered biomaterials for use in stem cell delivery to the ocular surface. His work in regenerative medicine has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, Research to Prevent Blindness, the Falk Family Foundation, and the Tri-Institutional Stem Cell Initiative. Dr. Rosenblatt has published widely, including over 150 original manuscripts, review articles, book chapters, and abstracts. Dr. Rosenblatt is a graduate of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Honors Program in Medical Education and the Combined MD/PhD program, receiving his PhD in Biochemistry, Cell, and Molecular Biology. He also completed his MBA at New York University and his MHA at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health. Dr. Rosenblatt completed his ophthalmology residency and combined clinical/research fellowship in corneal disease at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha and Omicron Delta Kappa honor societies.

Giulio Ferrari

Dr. Giulio Ferrari is an ophthalmologist specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the cornea and the ocular surface. He has a special interest in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious, inflammatory and autoimmune disorders of the ocular surface. In addition to his clinical activity, Dr. Ferrari has a strong interest in translational and clinical research, he leads the Eye Repair research Unit of the Department with the final goal of improving treatment of patients, with a specific focus on the role of corneal nerves dysfunction in highly prevalent ocular diseases. Dr. Ferrari graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Parma (cum laude). He then completed his ophthalmology residency (cum laude) at the University Hospital of Parma Italy. Later, he joined a Cornea fellowship program at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and a Post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard Medical School, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Boston USA. Finally, he attended the PhD program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Parma, Italy. Dr. Ferrari’s training also includes a research fellowship at the University College of London, where he collaborated to develop a novel imaging technique to diagnose glaucoma, and a clinical fellowship in oculoplastic surgery in East Grinstead, UK. Dr. Ferrari strongly believes that better understanding of disease mechanisms can significantly ameliorate the treatment of patients. To this end, he has been promoting clinical and basic research activity at the San Raffaele Hospital to better understand, and ameliorate the treatment of, corneal neovascularisation, keratoconus and intractable ocular pain. Dr. Ferrari has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications. His work has been published on leading ophthalmology journals, including Progress in Retina and Eye Research, The American Journal of Ophthalmology, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. He was also an author of 4 book chapters, and he is listed as inventor in 4 patent applications. He sits in the Editorial board of multiple journals, including The Ocular Surface and Translational Vision Science and Technology, and regularly serves as ad hoc reviewer for more than 15 ophthalmology and immunology journals. In recognition of his efforts to translate research into solid clinical implications. Dr. Ferrari has been awarded the Point Guard Bioscience Innovation in Ophthalmology Award in 2016 and the Pfizer Carl Camras Translational Ophthalmology Award in 2020.

Mitra Tavakoli

Mitra Tavakoli is an Associate Professor in Medicine at the University of Exeter and holds an honorary position as Professor of Diabetes and Endocrinology at University Hospital Birmingham. She is renowned for her pioneering work in diabetic neuropathy, neurodegenerative diseases, and rare neuropathies. Her research focuses on a range of oculomics and other neuropathy biomarkers, with a particular emphasis on corneal nerve morphology as a biomarker for small fiber neuropathy. Professor Tavakoli has published more than 90 papers and presents regularly at international conferences. She is actively involved in and leads clinical trials aimed at improving diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for diabetic neuropathy, as well as some metabolic rare diseases. Her work continues to have a significant impact on clinical practice, advancing both diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to neuropathy. In addition to her research, Professor Tavakoli is a dedicated educator, training scientists and healthcare professionals, and maintains an active clinical role, integrating research advancements into patient care.

Asim Ali

Asim Ali is the Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at the Hospital for Sick Children and Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto. He holds the endowed Mira Godard Chair in Vision Research and is Co-Director of the Paediatric Cornea Fellowship. Following an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Waterloo, he completed his medical degree and residency training in Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto where he was Chief Resident. He then went on to complete dual fellowships in Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus and Cornea and External Disease at Washington University, St. Louis, USA. His clinical work and research focuses on complex anterior segment disorders in children including cornea, cataract, glaucoma and congenital abnormalities, with a special emphasis on corneal transplant and external disease. He has a strong interest in neurotrophic keratopathy (corneal anaesthesia) and is co-developer of the minimally invasive corneal neurotization procedure using sural nerve grafts.

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