Professor Cusumano is a Research Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy), APL Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Bonn (Germany) and Adjunct Associate Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York (USA).

Prof. Cusumano was the Scientific Director of the PRIMAVERA study for Italy. The PRIMAVERA study is a joint European (Germany, France, Italy, Holland) + UK multicenter study evaluating the functional results of the [PRIMA[(/devices/prima) subretinal microchip implantation in 38 patients suffering from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which has evolved into its form terminal, geographic atrophy.

His interest in artificial vision began as early as 1989 at the Ophthalmology Clinic of the University of Bonn, directed by Prof. Manfred Spitznas. As a researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he directed the Alfred Krupp Electron Microscopy Lab of the Eye Clinic at the Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn. At that point he was working with Prof. Rolf Eckmiller, who had asked Prof. Spitznas for help in developing a microchip that could functionally replace the retina of patients who had lost its function. He needed a consultant ophthalmologist to talk to, as well as neuroanatomical colleagues. Unfortunately, for complex reasons, Prof. Spitznas then decided not to follow the path of developing artificial vision, as other colleagues in Germany did, first and foremost Eberhart Zrenner.

Prof. Cusumano is the Founder and President of the Macula & Genoma Foundation, a worldwide non-profit organization supporting translational medicine in the field of ophthalmology.

Experience

• Research Professor (2001 - present)

  Ophthalmology

  Università di Roma Tor Vergata

• Adjunct Associate Professor (1996 - present)

  Cornell University

• Scientific Director of the PRIMAVERA Trial (2019 - 2024)

  Pixium Vision

• Adjunct Associate Professor (1989 - 1995)

  Ophthalmology

  Universität Bonn

• Research Fellow (1991 - 1992)

  Universitäts-Augenklinik Bonn

Education

• MD (1988 - 1992)

  Sapienza Università di Roma

• MS, Ophthalmology (1984 - 1988)

  Sapienza Università di Roma

• BM, Medicine & Surgery (1977 - 1984)

  Sapienza Università di Roma