Houman Hemmati

Dr. Hemmati is a fellowship trained cornea specialist and has co-founded and served as CMO of two venture-backed ophthalmic pharmaceutical companies. Previously, Dr. Hemmati was Vice President of New Therapies at Capricor Therapeutics, where he led development of the company’s exosome platform for inflammatory diseases of the eye, skin, and gastrointestinal tract. He also served as Director, Clinical Development at Allergan, where he helped design and run early to late-stage clinical trials in the Ophthalmology Therapeutic Area.

Dr. Hemmati is a consultant to numerous ophthalmology biotech and pharmaceutical companies developing treatments for anterior and posterior segment diseases, including rare inherited retinal diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa and Stargardt Disease.

He is a board-certified, licensed ophthalmologist in active academic clinical practice in Los Angeles and continues to publish articles on clinical treatment guidelines and ophthalmic pharmaceutical pricing. Dr. Hemmati holds a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. He received his MD from UCLA and PhD in Biology from Caltech University in the Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed an internship in Internal Medicine at Stanford Hospital, an ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a post-doctoral fellowship in Chemical Engineering with Dr. Robert Langer at MIT, and a clinical fellowship in ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School.