National Eye Institute Names Kapil Bharti New Scientific Director
The National Eye Institute (NEI) has named Kapil Bharti was Scientific Director, effective May 2023.
“Dr. Bharti is a world-class translational vision scientist, a thoughtful planner who understands interdisciplinary work, and an outstanding leader,” NEI Director Michael F. Chiang said to The Catalyst, a publication about NIH Intramural Research. “I am very excited about the energy and ideas he will bring to NEI, and about the collaborative opportunities with other institutes at NIH and beyond.”
Dr. Bharti is known for his research on degenerative eye diseases using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. His lab continues to refine that technology and identify potential therapies for vision loss through collaborative work with the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
“It is exciting for me to combine all these technologies to further both basic and translational vision science,” Dr. Bharti said in an NEI news release. And as a seasoned mentor, he has an eye toward the next generation. “[We need to] train our fellows not only to become dedicated scientists but also to become modern-era leaders that work on equity and diversity.”
Dr. Bharti’s journey at NIH started in 2004 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Heinz Arnheiter’s lab in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Dr. Bharti has since authored over 50 peer-reviewed papers and 30 reviews and book chapters. His work was among the first to 1) reveal the importance of cooperative actions of transcription factors in pigment biology and eye development (PLoS Genet DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002757, 2012(external link); PLoS Genet DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004360, 2014; 2) show the role of primary cilium in cell maturation (Cell Rep 22:189-205; DOI:10.1016/j.celrep.2017.12.038), 3) describe a path for an autologous iPS cell-based therapy (Sci Trans Med 11, 2019; DOI:10.1126/scitranslmed.aat5580), and 4) use artificial-intelligence-based cellular image analysis as a release criteria in cell therapy (J Clin Invest 130:1010-1023, 2020; DOI:10.1172/JCI131187).
Dr. Bharti was named NEI’s first Earl Stadtman Investigator in 2012. That year he started the Ocular and Stem Cell Translational Research Section(external link), part of the Ophthalmic Genetics and Visual Function Branch (OGVFB). His lab uses RPE cells as an in vitro disease model for studying conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), late-onset retinal degeneration, and Stargardt disease. Patient RPE is generated by using iPS cells, which are created by collecting and then reprogramming a patient’s own blood or fibroblast cells.