Jose Pulido
The Power List 2020 – Power List
Larry Donoso Endowed Chair of Translational Ophthalmology at Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, PA; and Professor Emeritus at the Mayo Clinic, USA
Most serendipitous moment of your career?
When I was a first year ophthalmology resident, I was distraught that patients with AIDS were dying, but first going blnd from CMV retinitis. I had an idea that a new drug (ganciclovir), if injected into the eye, might be able to help them. My chairman Morton Goldberg approved the study and Gholem Peyman helped me to design it. I needed someone to do ERGs and an optometry resident volunteered to help me with that. We showed that ganciclovir could be injected in the eye and it has helped many patients with CMV retinitis. And the optometric resident became my wife!
Most unexpected turn of your career?
I think that deciding that I wanted to retool at the age of 62 and retiring from a great job at Mayo, going to England to learn genetics. While there, having Julia Haller, the Chair at Wills Eye Hospital, offering me an endowed chair at Wills. It opens up a new frontier for me and I am looking forward to this.
Piece of advice to your younger self?
Keep learning, keep changing, keep looking at the world through eyes of wonder.
