Benjamin Jay Frankfort, MD

My clinical practice is dedicated to the care of patients with glaucoma, including medical, laser and surgical approaches. As a clinician scientist, I am committed to improving our understanding of glaucoma, which will hopefully lead to the development of new diagnostics and therapeutics. Accordingly, my primary research objective is to understand the earliest events that occur in human and experimental glaucoma, which includes the identification of potential risk factors and susceptible retinal cell types. My research attempts to achieve this goal by working to understand the fundamental changes in retinal sensitivity that occur during glaucoma. In mice, we use experimental models of intracranial pressure and intraocular pressure change in wild type and transgenic strains to achieve this objective. We study visual function and changes in retinal light sensitivity through a variety of techniques. In humans, we study this through the development of new psychophysical tests administered under both light and dark conditions in patients with and without glaucoma.