Eleonora Georgeta Lad

Eleonora (Nora) Lad, MD, PhD is a clinician scientist and retinal ophthalmologist with the primary goal of developing novel strategies for early diagnosis and treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Dr. Lad specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of macular diseases, such as AMD, diabetic retinopathy, and retinal vascular diseases. She is involved in clinical trials and innovative therapies for the treatment of macular diseases. Dr. Lad is committed to providing the highest level of evidence-based patient care.

Dr. Lad’s career goal is to translate her doctoral training in neuroscience into developing innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for AMD. Her research interests are the following:
1) investigating the role of neuroinflammation and abnormal protein aggregates in the pathogenesis of AMD and developing relevant treatments
2) visual function testing in dry AMD with the goal of establishing functional endpoints for future clinical studies in early AMD
3) elucidating the use of novel retinal imaging biomarkers for early diagnosis of aging diseases (AMD and Alzheimer’s disease), including through the use of artificial intelligence (machine and deep learning).  On these studies, she is collaborating with an interdisciplinary team of investigators from Ophthalmology, Geriatrics, Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Dr. Lad is the recipient of the VA Merit Award I01, Patient-Oriented Research Career Development (K23) Award from the National Eye Institute, the 2016 Research to Prevent Blindness Ernest & Elizabeth Althouse Special Scholar Award, the 2016 ARVO/Alcon Early Career Clinician-Scientist Research Award, Heed Foundation award, and Duke Institute for Brain Sciences incubator award, among others. She is a member of the Macula Society, Retina Society, American Academy of Ophthalmology, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, International Society for Eye Research, Society of Heed Fellows, Society for Neuroscience and American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair.