Date of Birth: August 7, 1961

Place of Birth: Tel-Aviv, Israel

Medical School

1979-1986 Sackler Medical School, Tel Aviv University, Israel

1986 M.D. degree (Doctor in Medicine)

Residency

1992-1997  Residency in the Department of Ophthalmology, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel.

Fellowship

1998 -2000 Research Fellowship at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, William L. McKnight Vision Research Center, Miami, Florida

2000 – 2001 Clinical Fellowship in Cornea & External Eye Diseases, at Bascom-Palmer Eye Institute, Miami, Florida 

Current Faculty Position

2001 - Cornea Service, Department of Ophthalmology, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel

2001 - Senior Lecturer of Ophthalmology, Hadassah - Hebrew University Medical School

Clinical Interest

1.       Cornea and External Eye Diseases; Corneal Transplantation; Pterygium Surgery; Cataract Surgery 

2.       Ocular Surface Disorders; Limbal Stem Cell Transplantation and ex-vivo Expansion of Stem cells for limbal stem cell deficiency; Amniotic Membrane Transplantation 

3.       Dry Eye Disorders

4.       Refractive Surgery (LASIK)

1.      Ex-vivo expansion of stem cells on the amniotic memrane

2.       Inflammatory responses of ocular surface epithelia and conjunctival fibroblasts

3.       Downregulation of fibrotic and inflammatory responses of conjunctival fibroblasts and human peripheral blood eosinophils in allergic conjunctivitis

4.       Abberant gene expression in pterygium fibroblast

Grants and awards

1. The Joint Research Fund of  The Hebrew University Hadassah School of Medicine and The Hadassah University Hospital, July 1996. Research subject: “The effect of NGF (Nerve Growth Factor) on peripheral blood eosinophils in Vernal Keratoconjunctivitis.”

2.  The Israel Ophthalmological Society 1998 award.

3.  The Israel Medical Association World Fellowship award, 1998.

4.  The Israel Ministry of health, Chief Scientist Grant, 2001. Subject: "Suppression of inflammatory and fibrotic responses in severe allergic eye diseases by the Amniotic Membrane matrix".

5.  Grant for returning physicians, Hadassah University Hospital, January 2002.

6.  Hadassah Compensatory Grant, September 2002. Subject: “Tissue - engineered ocular surface replacements by ex-vivo gene transfer of anti-inflammatory genes to conjunctival fibroblasts or corneal limbal epithelial stem cells expanded on amniotic membrane layers”.  

Selected Publications

A. Original Articles

1.   Solomon A, Aloe L, Pe’er J, Frucht-Pery J, Bonini St, Bonini Se, Levi-Schaffer F: Nerve Growth Factor is preformed in and activates human peripheral blood eosinophils. J Allergy and Clinical Immunology 1998; 102: 454-60.

2.   Solomon A, Siganos CS, Frucht-Pery J. Relaxing Incision guided by videokeratography for astigmatism after keratoplasty for keratoconus. J Refract Surg 1999; 15 (3): 343-348.

3.   Solomon A, Ticho U, Frucht-Pery J: Late onset bleb-associated endophthalmitis following glaucoma filtering surgery with 5-Fluorouracil, Mitomycin C, and without anti-fibrotic agents. Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics 1999; 15(4): 283-293.

4.   Solomon A, Siganos CS, Frucht-Pery J: Corneal dynamics after single interrupted suture removal following penetrating keratoplasty. Journal of Refractive Surgery 15(4): 475-480, 1999.

5.   Solomon A, Shmilowich R, Shasha D, Frucht-Pery J, Pe’er J, Bonini Se, Levi-Schaffer F. Conjunctival fibroblasts enhance the survival and functional activity of peripheral blood eosinophils in vitro. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2000; 41: 1038-1044.

6.    Pflugfelder SC, Liu Z, Monroy D, Li D-Q, Carvajal ME, Price-Schiavi SA, Idris N, Solomon A, Perez A, Carraway KL. Detection of Sialomucin Complex (MUC4) in human ocular surface epithelium and tear fluid. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci  2000;41:1316-1326.

7.    Sobrin L, Liu Z, Monroy DC, Solomon A, Selzer MG, Lokeshwar BL, Pflugfelder SC. Regulation of MMP-9 in Human Tear Fluid and Corneal Epithelial Culture Supernatant. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2000; 41: 1703-1709.

8.    Solomon A, Li D-Q, Lee S-B, and Tseng SCG. Regulation of management of dry eye: a twenty-five-year review. Cornea 2000;19(5):644-9.

11.  Solomon A, Pires RTF, Tseng SGC. Amniotic membrane transplantation following an extensive removal of primary and recurrent pterygia.  Ophthalmology 2001, 108(4): 449-460.

12.  Solomon A, Rosenblatt M, Monroy D, Ji Z, Pflugfelder SC, Tseng SGC. Suppression of Interleukin-1a and Interleukin-1b in the Human Corneal Epithelial cells cultured on the Amniotic Membrane Matrix. Br J Ophthalmol 2001; 85: 444-449.

13.   Dursun D , Kim M, Solomon A, Pflugfelder SC. Treatment of recalcitrant corneal erosions with inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinase 9  -  doxycyline and corticosteroids. Am J Ophthalmol 2001; 132(1):8-13.

14.  Solomon A , Dursun D, Liu Z, Xie Y, Macri A, Monroy D, Pflugfelder SC. Pro- and anti-inflammatory forms of  interleukin-1 in the tear fluid and conjunctiva of patients with dry eye disease. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2001; 42: 2283-2292.

15.  Solomon A, Pe'er J, Levi-Schaffer F. Advances in ocular allergy: Basic mechanisms, clinical patterns and new therapies. Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology 2001; 1: 477-482.

16.  Li D-Q, Lokeshwar BL, Solomon A, Monroy D, Ji Z, Pflugfelder SC. Regulation of MMP-9 Production by Human Corneal Epithelial Cells. Exp Eye Res 2001; 73 (4): 449-459.

17.  Solomon A, Karp CL, Miller D, Dubovy SR, Huang JWA, Culbertson WW. Mycobacterium interface keratitis after LASIK. Ophthalmology 2001; 108 (12):  2201-2208.

18.  Solomon A, Meller D, Prabhaswat P, John T, Espana EM, Steuhl K-P, Tseng SCG. Amniotic Membrane grafts for non-traumatic corneal perforations, descematoceles and deep ulcers. Ophthalmology 2002; 109 (4): 694-703.

19.  Solomon A, Ellis P, Anderson DFW, Touhami A, Grueterich M, Espana EM, Ti S-E, Goto E, Feuer WJ, Tseng SCG. Long term outcome of Keratolimbal allografts with or without penetrating keratoplasty for total stem cell deficiency. Ophthalmology 2002; 109 (6):1159-1166.

20.  Espana E, Solomon A, Tseng SCG. Amniotic membrane transplantation for bullous keratopathy. J Cat Refract Surg 2002, in press.

21.  Solomon A, Espana E, Tseng SCG. Amniotic Membrane Transplantation for reconstruction of conjunctival fornices. Ophthalmology 2003, in press. Accepted August 2002.

22.   Solomon A, Grueterich M, Li DQ, Meller D, Lee SB, Tseng SCG. Overexpression of insulin like growth factor binding protein 2 (IGFBP2) in pterygium body fibroblasts. IOVS 2003, in press.

23.  Solomon A, Chowers I, Raiskup F, Siganos CS, Frucht-Pery J. Inadvertent conjunctival trauma related to contact with drug container tips: A masquerade syndrome". Ophthalmology 2003, in press.

B, Book Chapters

1.  Solomon, A. and Tseng, S.C.G.:  Amniotic membrane transplantation in pterygium surgery. In:  Buratto L, Philips, RL, Carito G, eds.  Pterygium Surgery.  New Jersey, Slack, Inc., 2000:  143-155.

2. Solomon, A., Piliponsky, A.M., Pe’er, J., and Levi-Schaffer, F.:  Mast cells as initiators and effectors of allergic inflammation.  In:  Ring, Y. (ed.).  New Trends in Allergy IV.  Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 2001 (in press).

3. Pflugfelder, S.C. and Solomon, A.:  Dry eye.  In:  Holland, E.J. and Mannis, M.J., eds.  Ocular Surface Disease:  Diagnosis and Management.  New York, Springer-Verlag,  2002.