Biography

Professor Fischer is a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon specializing in retinal diseases and their treatment.

He did is undergraduate training in Munich, Melbourne and Zurich and received his clinical and research training at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Tübingen and University of Oxford. 

He became member of the medical faculty at the Eberhard Karl University Tübingen in 2012 and was appointed Professor of Ophthalmology at the Centre for Ophthalmology Tübingen in 2015. In 2020, he was offered the Chair of Ophthalmology at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, but instead returned to Oxford.

Professor Fischer has received more than 25 awards, among them the Leonhard Klein award for the advancement of vitreoretinal surgery and the Senator-Hermann-Wacker award for scientific contributions to the field of retinal and choroidal disease. He has given more than 100 invited lectures and is author of more than 70 peer reviewed articles.

He advises patient advocacy groups, biotech and pharmaceutical industry, has been expert advisor to the European Medicines Agency and acts as editor of several scientific journals.

Research Summary

My ongoing research as clinician-scientist is embedded in the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and the Oxford Eye Hospital. It evolves around blinding disorders of the visual system and translational research towards treatment options. I also hold faculty positions at the University of Tübingen and the University of Lausanne.

Current research projects include:

• Leading the world's first post approval safety study for ocular gene therapy 
• Investigating the innate immune response to viral vectors in the eye
• Developing CRISPR gene editing for GUCY2D associated retinal dystrophies
• Translational development for gene therapy for Usher syndrome
• Characterisation of transgenic pig models with retinal dystrophy
• Leading the world's first clinical trial on gene therapy for PDE6A related retinitis pigmentosa
• Leading clinical trials on gene therapy for choroideremia and X-llinked retinitis pigmentosa

Julia-Sophia Bellingrath

Mario Bonillo

Annika Kristina Fritz

Jonas Neubauer

G. Alex Ochakovski

Julia Pfromm

Felix F. L. Reichel

Eduardo Rodríguez Bocanegra

Immanuel Philipp Seitz