Overview
Dr. Nizar Abdelfattah was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. He studied medicine at the University of Alexandria, where he graduated magna cum laude with First Class Honors and was recognized on the Dean’s Honor List. He then studied genetic engineering & biochemical kinetics of Toxoplasma Retinitis, for which he received the AlexMed Student Exchange Scholarship.
As a medical student, he was interested in the underserved patient population, for whom he built a blood bank and a renal dialysis unit. He also served as the President of the Egyptian Association for American Medical Training & Research (EAMTAR) and coached over 40,000 students and trainees.
Dr. Nizar went on to become the Allergan Research Scholar and completed his Fellowship in Medical Retina at the University of Southern California. He was then recruited to join the faculty of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) as an Assistant Scientist. He studied multimodal imaging in macular degeneration, analyzed practice patterns of Stargardts Disease, created new grading techniques for Geographic Atrophy, and tested novel devices with Alcon, Google, Genentech ...etc.
He also collaborated with Google Inc. and build the first Artificial Intelligence neural network for diabetic retinopathy screening. For his research, Dr. Nizar received numerous awards including the ARVO MIT Outstanding Presentation Award, the National Eye Institute Grant, the Physician of Extraordinary Abilities Award, and the ASCRS Foundation Research Scholarship.
His work was published in prestigious journals such as Ophthalmology, American Journal of Ophthalmology, RETINA, and JAMA Ophthalmology. His research was highlighted in conferences such as the AAO, ASRS, ASCRS, World Cornea Congress, and ARVO. He is also an elected member of the Professional Development and Education Committee at ARVO.