BUSM Alumnus Receives Prestigious Vision Award

Dr. Lloyd Paul AielloBoston University School of Medicine Class of 1988 alumnus Lloyd Paul Aiello, MD, PhD, received the prestigious Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award as part of a group that developed anti-angiogenic therapy for retinal disease.

The award celebrates both the success of the scientific process and the outcome—an effective therapy for the treatment of two of the leading causes of vision loss and blindness in the world: age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

Aiello, as well as other investigators who share this prize, demonstrated the important role VEGF (or vascular endothelial growth factor) plays in ocular retinal disease and how anti-VEGF agents could block its effect.

Aiello, who received BUSM’s Distinguished Alumnus Award this year, is a professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and vice president of ophthalmology, head of the Section on Eye Research and director of the Beetham Eye Institute at Joslin Diabetes Center. A third generation ophthalmologist, Aiello is committed to eliminating vision loss due to diabetic retinopathy and associated conditions. He has served on national and international committees and received at least 45 awards for his research. He also has been part of numerous editorial and review boards and authored more than 240 publications.