Prof. Michael Belkin

Prof. Belkin received an M.A. degree in Science from Cambridge University, England, and an M.D. degree in Medicine from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He is the author of over 250 scientific publications and holds over 25 patents.

Prof Belkin established and was the first full-time director of the Tel Aviv University Eye Research Institute. He was also

• Head of the pediatric ophthalmology services at Hadassah University Hospital and the Sheba Medical Center
• Chairman of the Tel Aviv University Department of Ophthalmology  
• President of the Israel Society of Eye and Vision Research of which he was a co-founder
• Chairman, Permanent Advisory Committee in Ophthalmology, Ministry of Health.
• Incumbent of the Tel Aviv University Sidney A. Fox Chair of Ophthalmology
• Chairman, Ophthalmology Committee, National Councils for Health
• Chairman, Commercial Relationship Committee, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
• Head of the Research and Development branch of the Israeli military medical department.

His laboratory is dedicated to enabling the transfer of technologies from university-level research to clinical practice by providing expertise and facilities for laboratory, preclinical and clinical studies. He is involved in several such projects at various stages of development in pharmaceutics, biotechnology, lasers, optics and ophthalmic devices.

Prof. Belkin has been involved in the establishment of many medical start-ups in ophthalmology and other fields. One of his noted contributions was inventing and developing the Ex-PRESS Glaucoma Filtration Device. The ExPRESS, after being sold to global eye care leader Alcon, is now routinely used in glaucoma surgery worldwide. He is now developing his latest invention, a one-second glaucoma laser treatment, for which he received a 2.5 million Euro grant from the European community.