Dr. John Danias is a tenured Professor of Ophthalmology and Cell Biology and the former Chair of Ophthalmology at SUNY – Downstate HSU, in New York. He is practicing clinical ophthalmology while at the same time engaging in research on glaucomatous neurodegeneration and steroid-induced glaucoma.
Dr. Danias received his MD and his PhD in Histology and Embryology from the University of Athens Medical School in Greece. Upon moving to the United States, he completed a pre-residency glaucoma research fellowship at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He then did his internship in Internal Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and completed his ophthalmology residency and clinical glaucoma fellowship at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. He was on the faculty of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine from 1998 till early 2009. Since then he has been on the faculty of the State University of New York – Downstate HSU.
Dr. Danias is a member of the AUPO, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the American Glaucoma Society and the NY Glaucoma Society. He has served as the Research Director council member for AUPO. He has previously served on the AGS Research committee and as president of the NY glaucoma society. A devoted clinician-scientist, he has a busy medical and surgical glaucoma practice. He is credited with developing innovative methods for accurately quantifying retinal ganglion cell loss and measuring the intraocular pressure non-invasively in animal glaucoma models. His work on complement in glaucoma has received the prestigious Lewis Rudin Award from the NY Academy of Medicine.
Dr Danias has been the principal investigator and coinvestigator of multiple NIH sponsored grants. He is currently the principal investigator of a VA merit award and co-investigator on two NIH grants. He is also involved in a number of other ongoing research projects. He has previously served as a standing member on the DPVS NIH study section and regularly reviews grants from other funding agencies. He also serves as reviewer for a number of scientific journals. Ultimately, he hopes to transfer knowledge gained from basic research into clinical practice and contribute to the advancement of academic ophthalmology.
As the former chair of one of the largest NY city residency programs, Dr Danias was also deeply involved in resident training and medical student education. He is currently serving as director of the anterior chamber fellowship program at SUNY Downstate.
