Prof Robert MacLaren is Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and Honorary Professor of Ophthalmology at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. He is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, Fellow and former King James IV Professor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Bodley Fellow of Merton College Oxford and Civilian Consultant Advisor to the Royal Navy. His research is into developing new surgical treatments for blindness, including the electronic retina and gene therapy. In 2016 he performed the world’s first operation inside the human eye using a remotely controlled robot. He led the first retinal gene therapy trial for the dry form of age-related macular degeneration in 2019. In 2024, he was profiled by the Ophthalmologist Magazine as one of top 100 ophthalmologists…