Peter Szurman

Peter Szurman
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Born	June 27, 1968 Trinec
Nationality	German
Citizenship	Germany
Occupation	Ophthalmologist Scientist Professor

Peter Szurman (June 27, 1968, in Trinec) is a German ophthalmologist, scientist, and professor of ophthalmology in Sulzbach/Saar. He became known for his translational research activities with the development of numerous new minimally invasive surgical procedures for difficult-to-treat eye diseases.

Career

After graduating from the humanistic high school in Velbert-Langenberg in 1987, he began studying human medicine in Essen and Paris. He received his doctorate at the Institute of Biochemistry of the University of Essen with magna cum laude on the isolation of basal lamina membrane protein of the eye lens. This was followed by further training as a specialist in ophthalmology at the University Eye Hospital of Cologne under the direction of Klaus Heimann, a pioneer in retinal surgery. As part of a research consortium funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, he dedicated himself to the development of the first electronic retinal prosthesis for artificial vision. In 2001, he changed to the University Eye Hospital in Tübingen as a senior physician. His scientific focus there was on biotechnological research of new drugs and tamponades for retinal diseases as well as electronic visual prostheses for corneal blind people.

In 2007 he habilitated on new treatment options for macular degeneration. This was followed in 2008 by his nomination as directing physician and directing senior physician and representative director of the University Eye Hospital in Tübingen. The awarding of a professorship in ophthalmology by the faculty of Tübingen took place in 2009. In the following year, 2010, he was appointed section director for "Experimental Occular Surgery" at the University Eye Hospital Tübingen. Then, one year later he accepted the call as director of the Eye Hospital Sulzbach at the Knappschaftsklinikum Saar after appointment list positions at the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the University Hospital Münster.

Areas of Expertise and Treatment Focus

Szurman is an expert in minimally invasive eye surgery. His treatment specialties include retinal vitrectomy, treatment of macular degeneration, corneal transplantation with laser and partial grafts (DMEK), stem cell therapy for corneal surface healing disorders after corrosive injuries and burns, trauma reconstruction, glaucoma surgery with microcatheters (canaloplasty), and laser surgery for cataracts. The Sulzbach Eye Clinic has become the largest clinic for major retinal vitrectomy surgery in Germany under his leadership, as of 2014.

Scientific Achievement

His scientific focus is translational research and the development of new, minimally invasive surgical procedures for difficult-to-treat eye diseases. To this end, he maintains several research groups, development partnerships with medical technology companies, a research collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute Sulzbach (IBMT), a dust-free room tissue bank, and an international study center. Szurman's research focuses on the development of new surgical techniques using biotechnological as well as biomedical engineering tissue substitutes for difficult-to-treat eye diseases, especially retinal surgery, stem cell therapy, and transplantation surgery. For over 20 years, he has been dedicated to the development of electronic visual prostheses. In 1997, his research group demonstrated the feasibility of electronic epiretinal stimulation of retinal cells by implanted electrodes in the eye resulting in visual perception in the visual cortex. In later work, he devoted himself to the development of a new surgical method with which such a complex electronic retinal implant overall system can be implanted and fixed under the retina for the first time. With this patented technique, he performed the world's first implantation of a functional neuronal subretinal visual prosthesis in humans in a long-term trial in 2006 as a member of an interdisciplinary team of surgeons. Since 2012, the Sulzbach Eye Clinic has been an official implantation center for the Argus II retinal prosthesis. He is one of the few surgeons worldwide with experience in implanting both epiretinal and subretinal retinal prostheses. Other research projects in ocular biomedical microsystems engineering include the development of a wide-angle retinal implant and a subchoroid implantable microsensor (patent pending) for non-contact telemetric eye pressure measurement in glaucoma patients. Other published developments include new surgical techniques for the treatment of retinal detachment, macular degeneration, glaucoma, lens surgery, new laser techniques, and stem cell therapy in the eye. An important scientific focus is the translational research on the new partial corneal transplantation (DMEK, Descemetmembranous Endothelial Keratoplasty). In 2012, he contributed to the further development of this new minimally invasive transplantation technique by developing and patenting the world's first transplantation system for modern partial grafts*. Over 10,000 transplants have now been performed using this system. Further developments include new laboratory methods to produce corneal lamellae and the patented production of a first-ever preloaded DMEK lamella. To this end, a specialized dust-free room tissue bank was opened at the Sulzbach Eye Hospital in 2015 in cooperation with the German Society for Tissue Transplantation (DGFG), and a joint donor initiative was launched under the patronage of the Saarland Minister of Health."

Publications

Szurman has published over 200 original scientific PubMed-listed papers in international referenced journals as well as 30 book contributions, which have been cited approximately 5,000 times.

Awards and Patents

In 2007, he received the German Ophthalmic Surgeons (DOC) Grand Research Award for his work on the treatment of macular degeneration. Other awards include the Pharmacia Research Fellow Award, the Novartis Innovative Development Grant, and several lecture, poster, and video awards. He has been an honorary member of the Bulgarian Ophthalmological Society since 2015. His involvement in student teaching has resulted in 6 teaching awards, including the 2006 "tuevalon" major teaching award from the Faculty of Medicine in Tübingen and the student representative for excellence in teaching.

Szurman holds six international patents on surgical techniques and biomedical engineering developments in ophthalmic surgery. These include international patent grants on the first implantation system for corneal partial grafts, a transplant cartridge for pre-prepared grafts, a suprachoroidal pressure sensor for glaucoma patients, and on the technique of subretinal implantation of an electronic visual prosthesis (Retina Implant).

Offices and Memberships

Szurman has been acting as a scientific referee for retinal bioengineering for the German Research Foundation (DFG) since 2012. He is a reviewer for numerous international journals. Since 2008, he has been an editorial board member for the journal Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica, retinal surgery section. Since 2018, he has also been an editorial board member for the journals Ophthalmologist and Ophthalmic Research.

Szurman is a member of numerous national and international professional societies, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS), Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), Club Jules Gonin, Société Française d'Ophtalmologie (SFO), European Vitreoretinal Society (EVRS), Society for Biological Chemistry (GbCh), German Ophthalmic Surgeons (DOC), German Ophthalmological Society (DOG) and Retinological Society (RG).

In 2012, Szurman was appointed to the Saarland Ministry of Economics Advisory Board for Health Affairs

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