Shyam Chaurasia MSc, PhD

Dr. Shyam S. Chaurasia, PhD, has been appointed associate professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. Dr. Chaurasia’s current research focuses on the molecular basis of eye diseases. He will start at MCW on February 1.

Dr. Chaurasia comes to MCW from the University of Missouri, Columbia, where he has been a faculty member since 2015 and most recently served as an assistant professor of ophthalmology and co-director of the retina lecture course. Dr. Chaurasia’s Ocular Immunology and Angiogenesis Lab is funded by NIH/NEI and focuses on the development of a highly innovative preclinical and clinical multidisciplinary research program for the identification and validation of novel biomarkers and targets, and evaluate potential VEGF-independent next-generation therapeutics for the treatment of Ocular Angiogenic Diseases (OADs). Dr. Chaurasia’s major research interests are retinal degenerative diseases, diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity, age-related macular degeneration, wound healing therapeutics, gene therapy, nanomedicine, and CounterACT. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed research articles and awarded multiple NIH grants.

Dr. Chaurasia earned both his BS in Biochemistry (1992) and his MS in Biochemistry (1994) at Nagpur University in Nagpur, India. In 1999, Dr. Chaurasia received his PhD in Life Sciences from Devi Ahilya University in Indore, India. He completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one in Biotechnology at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, TG, India, and one in Visual Neuroscience at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. He took his first faculty appointment in 2006 as Scientist at the Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH. In 2009, he moved to Singapore and joined the Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore, as an extramurally-funded Principal Scientist/Investigator.

Dr. Chaurasia has demonstrated a commitment to educating the next generation of researchers. He has contributed to the training and mentoring of numerous undergraduate, graduate, medical, and postgraduate students who work around the world.