Dr. Mark Pennesi is the Director of Inherited Retinal Degeneration Clinic at the Retina Foundation of the Southwest as well as an adjunct Professorship in Ophthalmology and Molecular and Medical Genetics at Oregon Health & Science University’s Casey Eye Institute. Dr. Pennesi attended the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and was awarded the Herman P. Schwann award in bioengineering for exemplary scholarship.
Dr. Pennesi pursued combined at MD/PhD at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He received numerous awards while in graduate school including the John J. Trentin Award for earning the highest GPA in his class and the BRASS scholarship for playing an active role in community service. This was followed by a residency in Ophthalmology at University of California – San Francisco, where he was awarded the Hogan-Garcia Award for having the best resident research project. In 2011 Dr. Pennesi received the ARVO/Alcon Early Career Clinician-Scientist Research Award. He is also the recipient of an FFB career development award, an RPB career development award, and an FFB enhanced career development award. He was awarded the Alcon Young Investigator Award in 2014 and a Residency Teaching award in 2015. He has also been elected into both the Macula Society and Retina Society.
Dr. Pennesi is a clinician scientist with a passion for developing novel therapeutic regimens for inherited retinal diseases. He has published over 175 peer reviewed publications in the field on inherited retinal degenerations. He has been the PI or Co-PI on numerous first in human clinical trials including: gene augmentation therapy for RPE65-related retinopathy, ABCA4-related retinopathy, GUCY2D-related retinopathy, Type IB Usher syndrome, CNGA3 and CNGB3-related achromatopsia, X-linked retinoschisis, X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, and choroideremia. He was a principal investigator on the Editas Brilliance trial where the first patient in the world was treated with gene editing from CEP290-related retinopathy.
