The Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh recently welcomed three new faculty members. Meet them here!
Farzad Jamshidi
Farzad Jamshidi, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, started on February 3, 2025. Prior to Pitt, he was a retina then ocular oncology fellow at the University of Iowa. He did his residency at the Dean McGee Eye Institute in Oklahoma City and a year of postdoctoral research at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston. He did his MD/PhD training at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
When asked what drew him to the position, he replied, “The institution and the faculty’s reputation as well as the state-of-the-art UPMC Vision Institute where exceptional research and patient care is being done, leading the way on many fronts.”
Dr. Jamshidi specializes in diseases of the retina and vitreous and sees patients with eye cancer involving the retina/choroid. He has done a variety of work including basic research into non-coding mutations in inherited retinal disorders, studying genomics of rare cancers, and clinical research on the response of retinal hemangioblastomas to HIF2a inhibitors.
He plans to establish a tumor service at the UPMC Vision Institute where patients with “these devastating conditions can be treated and cared for,” he said. “And to provide the best possible care that I can for all patients while conducting research to improve our current treatment limitations.”
Dr. Jamshidi called the imaging research at the UPMC Vision Institute “exceptional.” He plans to use this resource to study the evolution of choroidal nevi, the precursor lesions to the most primary eye cancer named choroidal melanoma and to also study retinal hemangioblastomas.
Silmara de Lima
Silmara de Lima, PhD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, started on February 3 as well. She came to Pittsburgh from Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She has been investigating axon regeneration in the optic nerve injury model since 2007 when she started her Masters in Brazil and pursued this topic during her PhD training as well.
Dr. Larry Benowitz, one of the leaders in the field of optic nerve regeneration and a part-time Professor of Ophthalmology at Pitt, was her mentor for a major part of her PhD training. In 2012, they published a paper showing that a combined treatment enabled retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) to regenerate injured axons the entire length of the optic nerve and find their way back to central target areas, become remyelinated, and help restore simple visual responses. “In addition, we demonstrated in 2016 that regenerating axons could reassemble important domains that are responsible for the propagation of action potential,” she added.
In 2018, Dr. de Lima was invited to join the Vision Restoration Initiative, sponsored by the Gilbert Family Foundation (GFF), with the aim to investigate potential neuroprotective targets to prevent vision loss in a mouse model for optic pathway gliomas caused by the genetic disorder Neurofibromatosis type 1. Recently, she was awarded a grant to be part of another initiative with the GFF – the next generation model for Neurofibromatosis type 1 – optic pathway glioma (NF1-OPG model). “I am very excited to embark on this new endeavor at the Department of Ophthalmology,” she said.
Her goals are to establish a strong foundation in the research of neuroprotection, regeneration, and myelination of RCGs using NF1-OPG in vitro and in vivo models, in addition to engaging with the academic community and collaborating with other faculty to help the Department reach its goals.
Xin Fan
Xin Fan, PhD, came to Pitt June 1, 2021, as a postdoc and was promoted to Research Assistant Professor on November 1, 2024. He got his PhD at Auburn University, where he worked as a postdoc before coming to Pittsburgh.
Dr. Fan was drawn to his postdoc position here due to the research projects in Dr. Morgan DiLeo’s lab. His research focuses on developing novel strategies for sustained and targeted ocular therapeutics for more effective and patient-friendly ocular treatments. His current projects are drug-collecting ocular insert to prolong retention time and enhance efficacy of commercial eye drops; liposome cysteamine carriers for eye drop formulation with long-term stability and smart release ability; and development of a colorimetric point-of-care biosensor for tear MicroRNA biomarker detection.
“My primary goal is to advance knowledge in my field through innovative research studies,” Dr. Fan said. “I aim to secure research funding through grant applications and collaborations while publishing high-impact papers in peer-reviewed journals.”