Viridiana Kocaba MD, PhD, MSE, FEBO

Dr. Kocaba is the Director of Innovation and Senior Clinician Scientist specializing in corneal diseases at NIIOS (Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery) in Rotterdam and an Adjunct Clinician Scientist within the Tissue Engineering and Cell Therapy Group at Singapore Eye Research Institute. She graduated from Paris V René Descartes Medical School in 2006. She did her basic, advanced specialist, and sub-specialized fellowship training in Cornea External Disease and Refractive Surgery at Lyon 1 University. To increase her knowledge in the corneal endothelial field, she joined the laboratory of Dr. U.V. Jurkunas from 2015 to 2017. In 2018, she defended her PhD at Lyon 1 University in collaboration with Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.

Her work profile is divided between clinical work and research. Her clinical work is mainly in corneal transplantation both basic and advanced forms, especially DMEK surgery, and anterior segment reconstruction. Her research interests cover all aspects of the corneal disease from basic science, to translational and clinical research. These include laboratory-based research investigating new stem cell-based therapies e.g. culturing of human corneal endothelial cells and studies on patients with corneal genetic disorders. She is also committed to clinical teaching to other surgeons on advanced forms of corneal transplantation.