Dr. Ambati is the DuPont Guerry, III, Professor and Vice Chair for Research, and Founding Director, Center for Advanced Vision Science at the University of Virginia. He pioneered the concept that macular degeneration is an inflammatory disease driven by perturbations in innate immunity. His work has been published in premier journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Medicine, and The New England Journal of Medicine. He was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and is the only ophthalmologist to win the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award. He has won numerous other prizes including the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award, ARVO Cogan Award, Roger Johnson Memorial Award for Macular Degeneration Research, Chanchlani Global Vision Research Award, and David Weeks Outstanding AMD Research Award. Dr. Ambati led the discovery and development of Kamuvudines.