Welcoming Our Newest Faculty Member, Dr. Emma Lessieur-Contreras

Doheny Eye Institute is excited to announce that, effective May 5, Emma Lessieur-Contreras, MD, PhD, will be joining Doheny Eye Institute as a Principal Investigator and the UCLA Department of Ophthalmology as an Assistant Professor in Residence.

Dr. Lessieur earned her medical degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas in Mexico and completed her PhD in Molecular Medicine with an ophthalmology focus at Case Western Reserve University. Her research journey spans from exploring retinal genetics and photoreceptor function in zebrafish models to impactful work in diabetic retinopathy. Most recently, during her postdoctoral training at the University of California, Irvine under Dr. Timothy Kern, she investigated how extracellular vesicles mediate immune signaling in the early stages of diabetic retinopathy.

Her innovative work is supported by a prestigious K99/R00 MOSAIC Career Transition Award from the National Eye Institute. At Doheny, Dr. Lessieur will continue her groundbreaking research on the communication between photoreceptor cells and the immune system during the early stages of diabetic retinopathy.

Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Dr. Lessieur as she begins this exciting next chapter at Doheny Eye Institute!