Fliesler Elected to Board of World’s Largest Eye Research Society

Fliesler will serve a five-year term on the board, which sets ARVO’s strategic direction and conducts operations and policymaking activities.

His election to the board is his second major honor from ARVO this year. Last month, Fliesler was formally inducted as an ARVO Gold Fellow, placing him in an elite group of international vision researchers.

He chairs the ARVO Publications Committee and has served on and led the Retinal Cell Biology section of the ARVO Annual Meeting Program Committee.

Fliesler is widely considered an expert in lipid — particularly cholesterol — metabolism in the retina, a topic he has been researching for more than 30 years. 

Over the past two decades, he has conducted National Institutes of Health-funded research on retinal dysfunction and degeneration associated with Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, which is initially caused by defective cholesterol biosynthesis.

Fliesler also collaborates with researchers from other institutions on the development of novel gene therapy applications to treat retinitis pigmentosa and other genetic eye conditions that can lead to blindness.

He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, numerous book chapters, reviews, editorials and abstracts.

A University at Buffalo faculty member since 2008, Fliesler is an internationally recognized scientist and president of the International Society for Eye Research. 

Research to Prevent Blindness honored him with a James S. Adams Award and a Senior Scientific Investigator award. He was a finalist twice for an Alcon Research Institute Award.

Fliesler is vice chair and director of research for the Department of Ophthalmology. He directs research for UB’s Ira G. Ross Eye Institute Vision Research Center and is a research health scientist for the Veterans Affairs Western New York Healthcare System.