Faculty

Dr. Brooks graduated with his MD and PhD (Pharmacology) degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed his ophthalmology residency and pediatric ophthalmology fellowship at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, followed by a fellowship in medical genetics at the National Human Genome Research Institute. In 2005, he moved to the National Eye Institute under the Physician-Scientist Development Program, where he now serves as a Senior Investigator and Chief of the Ophthalmic Genetics & Visual Function Branch. In 2016, he became the Clinical Director of the National Eye Institute.

Dr. Brooks has won several important honors and awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award in Science & Engineering, the nation's highest award for young investigators, and election into the American Society For Clinical Investigation. He is one of only a handful of physicians in the nation to hold board certifications from both the American Board of Ophthalmology and the American Board of Medical Genetics & Genomics.

• Lahrouchi N, George A, Ratbi I, Schneider R, Elalaoui SC, Moosa S, Bharti S, Sharma R, Abu-Asab M, Onojafe F, Adadi N, Lodder EM, Laarabi FZ, Lamsyah Y, Elorch H, Chebbar I, Postma AV, Lougaris V, Plebani A, Altmueller J, Kyrieleis H, Meiner V, McNeill H, Bharti K, Lyonnet S, Wollnik B, Henrion-Caude A, Berraho A, Hildebrandt F, Bezzina CR, Brooks B, Sefiani A (2019) Homozygous frameshift mutations in FAT1 cause a syndrome characterized by colobomatous microphthalmia, ptosis, nephropathy, and syndactyly. Nature Communications10(1):1180. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-08547-w
• Adams DR, Menezes S, Jauregui R, Valivullah ZM, Power B, Abraham M, Jeffrey BG, Garced A, Alur RP, Cunningham D, Wiggs E, Merideth MA, Chiang PW, Bernstein S, Ito S, Wakamatsu K, Jack RM, Introne WJ, Gahl WA, Brooks BP (2019) One-year pilot study on the effects of nitisinone on melanin in patients with OCA-1B. JCI Insight4(2). pii: 124387. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.124387
• George A, Zand DJ, Hufnagel RB, Sharma R, Sergeev YV, Legare JM, Rice GM, Scott Schwoerer JA, Rius M, Tetri L, Gamm DM, Bharti K, Brooks BP (2016) Biallelic Mutations in MITF Cause Coloboma, Osteopetrosis, Microphthalmia, Macrocephaly, Albinism, and Deafness. American Journal of Human Genetics99(6):1388-1394. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.11.004
• Onojafe IF, Adams DR, Simeonov DR, Zhang J, Chan CC, Bernardini IM, Sergeev YV, Dolinska MB, Alur RP, Brilliant MH, Gahl WA, Brooks BP (2011) Nitisinone improves eye and skin pigmentation defects in a mouse model of oculocutaneous albinism. Journal of Clinical Investigation121(10):3914-23. doi: 10.1172/JCI59372
• Brown JD, Dutta S, Bharti K, Bonner RF, Munson PJ, Dawid IB, Akhtar AL, Onojafe IF, Alur RP, Gross JM, Hejtmancik JF, Jiao X, Chan WY, Brooks BP (2009) Expression profiling during ocular development identifies 2 Nlz genes with a critical role in optic fissure closure. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences106(5):1462-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0812017106

• Post-doctoral Fellowship