Hema Ramkumar

Experience

1. Chief Executive Officer

   Oculogenex

   Feb 2020 — Present · La Habra, CA, US

   Oculogenex is a biopharmaceutical gene therapy company dedicated to commercializing a novel gene therapy to patients with blinding retinal diseases. Dr. Ramkumar is a vitreoretinal surgeon and physician scientist with 17 years of translational research in retinal diseases and 6 years of laboratory research in the retina, Dr. Ramkumar understands the retina, methods of evaluating gene therapies, and laboratory research. With her economics background from Northwestern University, she understands the market and has a strategy to commercialize and distribute this therapy. She has been a principal investigator of an FDA-approved Phase 1/2 clinical trial, investigator of 15 Phase clinical trials for retinal diseases, and created and completed 12 other research and development projects as principal investigator. As a retina specialist, she understands the diseases and market and knows which patients would benefit the most from novel therapies. She has been awarded the Thrasher Foundation Early career award, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholar Award, and Honors in Research from the Northwestern University School of Medicine. She trained at the National Eye Institute / National Institutes of Health studying treatments of dry age-related macular degeneration in animal models. She is a prolific scientist and reviewer for multiple Ophthalmology and Retina journals and considered a world expert on macular degeneration and research.

Education

• University of California, San Diego - School of Medicine

  Residency and Fellowship, Ophthalmology Residency Program and Surgical Retina Fellowship

• Northwestern University

  Doctor of Medicine - MD, Developmental neurobiology