Christopher B. Toomey, MD, PhD

Christopher B. Toomey, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at UC San Diego, Shiley Eye Institute, Viterbi Family Department of Ophthalmology and the Glycobiology Research and Training Center, who has an active medical and surgical practice specializing in adult vitreoretinal disease.

Dr. Toomey is a native San Diegan and returned to UC San Diego after completing a fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery at the Wilmer Eye Institute at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore MD. He received multiple awards including the Heed Ophthalmic Society Fellowship, Vitreo Retinal Surgery Foundation Research Award and served on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI), as a JCI scholar. Prior to his fellowship, Dr. Toomey received his residency training at the UC San Diego Shiley Eye Institute, Viterbi Family Department of Ophthalmology, and attended medical school and doctoral studies in Cell Biology at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham NC., as a part of the integrated NIH-funded, Medical Scientist Training Program.

Dr. Toomey is a physician-scientist with an active basic science research program studying the early and intermediate stages of “dry” age-related macular degeneration. Approximately 50% of the attributable risk of developing AMD is due to common polymorphisms in complement regulatory genes. Dr. Toomey’s research discovered the mechanism of complement factor H in regulating the formation of drusen in patients with AMD (published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and reviewed in Progress in Retinal and Eye Research). As a part of this discovery, Dr. Toomey elucidated an unexpected role of extracellular glycosaminoglycans (repeating disaccharide sugar chains) in regulating the formation of drusen.

Dr. Toomey’s clinical interest includes atrophic and neovascular age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, macular telangiectasia, epiretinal membranes, macular holes and complex retinal detachments. Dr. Toomey is actively involved in clinical trials. He is the principal investigator for the Natural History Observation and Registry Study for Macular Telangiectasia and the Tamoxifen Retinopathy Cross-Sectional Study clinical trial at UCSD.

Dr. Toomey is a physician-scientist with a National Institute of Health funded active basic science research program studying the early and intermediate stages of “dry” age-related macular degeneration. The cardinal feature of the early and intermediate stages of “dry” age-related macular degeneration are extracellular deposits known as Drusen. Dr. Toomey’s research program discovered the unexpected role of extracellular glycosaminoglycans (repeating disaccharide sugar chains) in regulating the formation of drusen. Dr. Toomey’s laboratory is embedded in Glycobiology Research and Training Center at UC, San Diego. The goal of his research program is focused on developing therapies capable of cleansing the eye of drusen prior to development of vision loss in AMD.

Dr. Toomey’s research is generously supported by the Foundation for Fighting Blindness, Research to Prevent Blindness, Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, Robert Machemer MD Foundation, National Eye Institute, Alcon Research Institute, BrightFocus Foundation and UCSD Academic Senate.

Dr. Toomey has a laboratory program embedded within the Glycobiology Research and Training Center at UC San Diego to determine the pharmacological potential of glycosaminoglycans in patients with early and intermediate stages of “dry” AMD. The long-term goal is to develop therapies capable of cleansing the eye of drusen prior to development of vision loss in AMD.

Please visit the toomeylab.ucsd.edu website for additional info.

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