About Leo Kim, MD, PhD

Dr. Leo Kim is a retina surgeon and a full time member of the Retina Service who has extensive experience in the management of retinal diseases associated with neovascularization or angiogenesis. These include diseases such as retinal vein occlusions, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration. He sees patients at two locations-at Mass. Eye and Ear's main campus on Charles Street and at the Mass. Eye and Ear Retina Consultants office at 1 Montvale Ave. in Stoneham.

After obtaining his MD/PhD from the Medical Scientist Training Program at Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Kim attended University of Southern California/Doheny Eye Institute for his ophthalmology residency, where he was recognized with the Doheny Resident Research Award for two consecutive years. He also was awarded the Lillian and Henry Nesburn Award for Research Excellence and was chosen to participate in the 2008 Heed Ophthalmic Foundation Residents Retreat, an honor extended to only the top residents in the United States demonstrating exceptional potential in academic ophthalmology. Following residency, Dr. Kim continued at Doheny Eye Institute as a vitreoretinal surgery fellow and was recognized by the Heed Foundation with a highly prestigious fellowship grant.

Departments, Centers, & Programs:

Clinical Interests:

Treats:

Languages:

Locations

Mass Eye and Ear
243 Charles St.
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-523-7900

Medical Education

  • M.D.; Ph.D., Yale University School of Medicine
  • Residency, Doheny Eye Center UCLA
  • Fellowship, Doheny Eye Center UCLA

American Board Certifications

  • Ophthalmology, American Board of Ophthalmology

Research

Dr. Kim is a practicing vitreoretinal surgeon. He has extensive clinical experience in the management of retinal diseases associated with pathologic angiogenesis and is devoted to understanding the mechanisms of vitreoretinal disease. A former NIH-sponsored K12 scholar, Dr. Kim is evaluating neovascular membranes obtained from patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy in order to understand the underlying mechanisms of aberrant retinal angiogenesis. He is also studying the cell biology of proliferative vitreretinopathy (PVR) membranes obtained from patients. Other areas of interest include retinal toxicities and their mechanisms of cell death, as well as computational modeling of oxygen distribution in dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to predict conversion to wet AMD.

Publications

  • 1. Lizano P, Bannai D, Lutz O, Kim LA, Miller J, Keshavan M. A Meta-analysis of Retinal Cytoarchitectural Abnormalities in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. Schizophr Bull. 2020 Jan 04; 46(1):43-53.

    2. Tieger MG, Moussa K, Kim LA, Eliott D. The History of Visualization in Vitrectomy Surgery. Int Ophthalmol Clin. 2020; 60(1):1-15.

    3. Cui Y, Zhu Y, Wang JC, Lu Y, Zeng R, Katz R, Wu DM, Vavvas DG, Husain D, Miller JW, Kim LA, Miller JB. Imaging Artifacts and Segmentation Errors With Wide-Field Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Diabetic Retinopathy. Transl Vis Sci Technol. 2019 Nov; 8(6):18. 

    4. Arboleda-Velasquez JF, Lopera F, O'Hare M, Delgado-Tirado S, Marino C, Chmielewska N, Saez-Torres KL, Amarnani D, Schultz AP, Sperling RA, Leyton-Cifuentes D, Chen K, Baena A, Aguillon D, Rios-Romenets S, Giraldo M, Guzmán-Vélez E, Norton DJ, Pardilla-Delgado E, Artola A, Sanchez JS, Acosta-Uribe J, Lalli M, Kosik KS, Huentelman MJ, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Reiman RA, Luo J, Chen Y, Thiyyagura P, Su Y, Jun GR, Naymik M, Gai X, Bootwalla M, Ji J, Shen L, Miller JB, Kim LA, Tariot PN, Johnson KA, Reiman EM, Quiroz YT. Resistance to autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease in an APOE3 Christchurch homozygote: a case report. Nat Med. 2019 Nov; 25(11):1680-1683.

    5. McHugh KJ, Li D, Wang JC, Kwark L, Loo J, Macha V, Farsiu S, Kim LA, Saint-Geniez M. Computational modeling of retinal hypoxia and photoreceptor degeneration in patients with age-related macular degeneration. PLoS One. 2019; 14(6):e0216215.

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