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Sina Farsiu

Anderson-Rupp Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Box 3802 Med Ctr, Durham, NC 27710
CIEMAS 2575, Durham, NC 27708

Research Interests


Focused on medical imaging and machine learning to improve the overall health and vision outcome of patients with ocular and neurological diseases (e.g., age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, Alzheimer, and ALS) through earlier and personalized therapy.

Selected Grants


Defining the underlying causes of retinal degeneration in CRB1 disease

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by Foundation Fighting Blindness, Inc · 2024 - 2029

Quantitative assessment of glaucomatous conventional outflow dynamics

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2019 - 2029

Automated Quantitative Ulcer Analysis (AQUA): Diagnosing Organism Types

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by University of Michigan · 2024 - 2028

Blink, Lacrimation, and Nociception: Precision Mapping and Integrated Atlas Generation of Corneal Trigeminal Afferents in Mice and Humans

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2022 - 2027

Elucidating perifoveal vascular development in infants

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2022 - 2027

Retinal Light Scattering Measurements as a Clinical Biomarker of Alzheimer's Disease

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institute on Aging · 2022 - 2027

NAC Attack, a phase-3, multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled trial with retinitis pigmentosa: OCT Reading Center

Clinical TrialCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2022 - 2027

Automated Software for Analysis of Adaptive Optics Scanning Optical Coherence Tomography Images

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Foundation Fighting Blindness, Inc · 2021 - 2026

Soft drusen in rhesus macaques as a nonhuman primate model of early age-related macular degeneration

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by University of California - Davis · 2021 - 2025

OCT measurement of trabecular meshwork function in vivo

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by Georgia Institute of Technology · 2020 - 2025

Quantifying Microbial Keratitis Features to Predict Outcomes

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by University of Michigan · 2020 - 2024

Screening for pediatric retinal diseases using artificial intelligence and wide-field fundus imaging

ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by VitreoRetinal Surgery Foundation · 2021 - 2023

Application of deep machine learning for identifying structural and functional deficits in retinitis pigmentosa

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Retina Foundation of the Southwest · 2019 - 2022

Advanced a/LCI systems for improved clinical utility

ResearchCollaborating Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2016 - 2022

Artificial Intelligence-aided Screening of Potentially Blinding Pediatric Retinal Diseases

FellowshipPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Hartwell Foundation · 2020 - 2022

Compressive aperture super-resolution in vivo microscopy

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2019 - 2022

Portable motion-stabilized optical coherence tomography for eye care in acute care settings

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2018 - 2022

Handheld Portable Adaptive Optics Optical Coherence Tomography for Imaging Young Children

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2019 - 2022

Using Machine Learning to Identify Eye Disease in Optical Coherence Tomography Images Obtained from a Robotically-Aligned Scanner

FellowshipCo-Mentor · Awarded by Research To Prevent Blindness, Inc. · 2021 - 2021

Psychophysics-Guided Signal Processing for Retinal Prosthetics

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2018 - 2021

Novel Experimental Model for Pseudoexfolliation Syndrome

ResearchBioinformatics Specialist · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2018 - 2020

Training in Medical Imaging

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEMentor · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2003 - 2020

Coherent light scattering for early detection of Alzheimer's disease

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2017 - 2020

Handheld Portable Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope for Imaging Young Children

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2016 - 2019

NCS-FO:Real-time optical readout and control of population neural activity with cellular resolution

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2015 - 2019

RPB: 2014 Nelson Trust Award

ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by Research To Prevent Blindness, Inc. · 2014 - 2019

Automated Software for Analysis of Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy Images

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Foundation Fighting Blindness, Inc · 2016 - 2019

Flavoprotein Autofluorescence Imaging in AMD

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2015 - 2018

Computer Aided Classification of Diabetic Macular Edema

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2012 - 2018

Temporal dynamics of retinal ganglion cell neurodegeneration in glaucoma

ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2015 - 2018

Intraoperative OCT Guidance of Intraocular Surgery

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2013 - 2017

OCT measurement of TM/SC stiffness in living mice

ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by BrightFocus Foundation · 2015 - 2017

Smartphone Ophthalmoscope Lens Vascularity

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Research Triangle Institute International · 2015 - 2017

UPenn - NEI Follow-up Study: Comparison of AMD Treatment Trials (CATT) YR3

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by University of Pennsylvania · 2013 - 2017

Using Optical Coherence Tomography to Elucidate Optic Nerve Development in Healthy Infants and Children

ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc. · 2015 - 2017

Field Deployable Optical Coherence Tomography for Triage of Ocular Trauma

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command · 2012 - 2016

Smartphone ophthalmoscope image analysis of lens capsule vascularity to estimate preterm gestational age

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Research Triangle Institute · 2014 - 2016

Novel Retinal Biomarkers for Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by Alzheimer's Association · 2013 - 2016

Coherent light scattering for early detection of retinal disease

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2013 - 2016

Coordinating Center for the Comparison of AMD Treatments Trials

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by University of Pennsylvania · 2014 - 2015

Portable Motion Compensated SDOCT System for Imaging Young Children

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2012 - 2014

Real Time Intraoperative SDOCT for Vitreoretinal Surgery

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2009 - 2012

External Relationships


  • Optical Society of America (Optica)
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • Roche
  • Universities and other research entities. I usually give a few lectures a year and they have a small amount of speaker honoraria
  • University of California
  • University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute

This faculty member (or a member of their immediate family) has reported outside activities with the companies, institutions, or organizations listed above. This information is available to institutional leadership and, when appropriate, management plans are in place to address potential conflicts of interest.