Yannek I. Leiderman MD, PhD

Dr. Leiderman is a surgeon, vitreoretinal specialist, and translational researcher at The Illinois Eye & Ear Infirmary and Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His primary clinical interests include the surgical treatment of complex retinal detachment, diabetic eye disease, proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), macular surgery, and pathology requiring tactics of anterior and posterior segment surgery.

He directs the Microsurgical Innovation and Novel Concepts Laboratory, a cross-disciplinary biomedical engineering team. Translational investigations are directed toward two principal areas: 1) Development of technology and techniques for the integration of surgical instrumentation and imaging, 2) design and high-fidelity modeling of novel surgical devices, and experimental techniques in microsurgery. He also serves as Technical Director of the UIC Ophthalmic Research in Bioengineering, Innovation, and Technology (ORBIT) Lab, an interdisciplinary team specializing in the development of ophthalmic devices.

Dr. Leiderman’s clinical research is primarily directed toward the effectiveness of ophthalmic surgical interventions in diseases of the retina and vitreous. He has served as the institutional principal investigator for a number of multi-center clinical trials assessing ophthalmic surgical techniques and devices, including first-in-human cell therapy and gene therapy trials.

Dr. Leiderman enjoys his role in training clinical fellows and is committed to surgical education. He is the Course Director of the Surgical Laboratory Course for vitreoretinal fellows in partnership with Alcon. Dr. Leiderman has been a member of the Retina Subcommittee of the Ophthalmology News and Education (ONE) Network of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), invited to contribute educational materials on surgical tactics and methodology for distribution to the AAO’s global audience.