Vittorio Porciatti, D.Sc., serves as the Director and Vice Chairman of Research of the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Vision Research Center at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Porciatti is a tenured research professor of ophthalmology, neuroscience and biomedical engineering.
He holds two R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health-National Eye Institute (NEI) for clinical end experimental studies on reversible dysfunction of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in glaucoma. The prevalence of the disease will affect a projected 3,000,000 Americans by the year 2020. Glaucoma causes progressive damage and death of RGCs resulting in blindness. The goal of Porciatti’s research is to detect RGC dysfunction in the early stages of glaucoma and prevent RGC death with timely treatment. Dr. Porciatti is also the director of the NIH-core grant McKnight Center for Vision Research that provides a variety of resources in support of eye and vision scientists at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and other departments at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Dr. Porciatti received a Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences and a Doctorate degree from the University of Pisa, Italy. Prior to joining Bascom Palmer Eye Institute’s faculty in 2001, he served as senior scientist and a member of the scientific committee at the Institute of Neurophysiology at the Italian Research Council, Pisa. He also had a secondary appointment at the School of Ophthalmology, Catholic University Rome. He has published and lectured extensively, has served on NIH-study sections, and has collaborated with prestigious institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) and Institut Pasteur, Paris. In 2000, his article in Nature Neuroscience on Pokemon-generated seizures explained physiological abnormalities in the brain of photosensitive children and made worldwide headlines.