Rate My Professor Arlene Drack

Arlene V. Drack, MD, is the Ronald V. Keech Professor of Pediatric Genetic Eye Disease Research, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Professor of Pediatrics, and Director of the Kolder Electrophysiology Service at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. She earned a BS in Biology and Philosophy from the University of Scranton and an MD from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Dr. Drack completed her ophthalmology residency at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, District of Columbia, followed by fellowships in pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, molecular ophthalmology, and ophthalmic genetics at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She joined the University of Iowa faculty in 2008 as a clinician-scientist specializing in juvenile inherited eye diseases.

Dr. Drack's research focuses on inherited eye diseases affecting children, particularly the development of novel treatments. Her laboratory work involves mouse models of retinal degeneration, subretinal injection of therapeutic molecules, and translational studies preparing for human trials, with a special emphasis on Bardet-Biedl Syndrome. She serves as Principal Investigator for the Phase III RPE65 Leber congenital amaurosis gene therapy trial at the University of Iowa and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Her contributions include participation in research leading to FDA consideration of the first ocular gene therapy approval. Dr. Drack chairs the inaugural Genetic Eye Disease task force for the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. Key publications include 'Efficacy and safety of voretigene neparvovec (AAV2-hRPE65v2) in patients with RPE65-mediated inherited retinal dystrophy: a randomised, controlled, open-label, phase 3 trial' (The Lancet, 2017), 'Mutations in NYX, encoding the leucine-rich proteoglycan nyctalopin, cause X-linked complete congenital stationary night blindness' (Nature Genetics, 2000), 'Infantile cataracts' (Survey of Ophthalmology, 1996), 'Patient-specific iPSC-derived photoreceptor precursor cells as a means to investigate retinitis pigmentosa' (eLife, 2013), and 'Effect of an intravitreal antisense oligonucleotide on vision in Leber congenital amaurosis due to a photoreceptor cilium defect' (Nature Medicine, 2019). Her work has advanced genetic testing recommendations and gene therapy for blinding retinal disorders.