Sophie Deng named 2025-2026 ARVO president

Sophie X. Deng, MD, PhD, FARVO, has stepped into the role as the new 2025-2026 Association for Research and Ophthalmology (ARVO) president.

Deng has been part of ARVO for more than 20 years, is a Fellow of ARVO (FARVO) and has held various volunteer roles including member and chair of ARVO’s Annual Meeting Program Committee, member of the organization’s Awards Canvassing Working Group, and the ARVO Foundation Awards Committee.

In addition to her roles for ARVO, Deng is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she is the Walton Li Chair in Cornea and Uveitis, co-chief of the Cornea and Uveitis Division, Vice Chair for Inspiring Excellence at the Stein Eye Institute, as well as the director of the Institute’s Cornea Biology Laboratory.

Focusing her research on developing regenerative therapies for corneal diseases, one of Deng’s projects is focused on utilizing stem cell therapy to restore vision and improve current treatments for patients with limbal stem cell deficiency. Other projects of hers focus on developing exosome-based therapy for the treatment of corneal scarring.

The 2026 ARVO Annual Meeting will be held May 3-7 in Denver, where the theme, “Achieving precision ophthalmology through innovative vision research,” has been chosen by Deng.

“With the rapid advancements in stem cell biology, high resolution in vivo imaging and artificial intelligence, now is the ideal time to leverage these knowledge and tools to advance regenerative medicine, particularly in ophthalmology,” Deng said of the theme in a press release.

Reference:

Vision in. Sophie X. Deng, MD, PhD, FARVO named 2025 - 2026 ARVO president | Newswise. Newswise.com. Published May 19, 2025. Accessed May 22, 2025. https://www.newswise.com/articles/sophie-x-deng-md-phd-farvo-named-2025-2026-arvo-president