Christelijk Gymnasium Sorghvliet, Den Haag

Radboud University Nijmegen

Leiden University

Director at Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery (NIIOS)

The Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery (NIIOS) is an ophthalmic institute that facilitates a unique combination of the following organizations:

-  Amnitrans EyeBank Rotterdam - Recovers corneal tissue from donors, prepares it and then delivers it to medical specialists. We also develop our own innovative tissue preparation techniques;
-  Melles CorneaClinic Rotterdam - Provides ophthalmic care to patients with primarily corneal disorders based on the techniques developed at NIIOS;
-  NIIOS Research & Development - Develops and refines corneal transplantation techniques that are minimally invasive;
-  NIIOS Academy -  An educational section providing post-academic surgical eduction for national and international ophthalmic surgeons and residents. The program consist of fellowships, hands-on wetlab courses for corneal surgeons, training for eye bank staff and broadcasting live DMEK-surgeries;
-  Hippocratech - a company specialized in manufacturing and supplying medical devices, reagents and disposable packs for ophthalmic and eye banking purposes;
-  Melles Research Fonds - A foundation that aims to financially support ophthalmic research and development;
-  NIIOS USA - A branch office in San Diego, California to further focus on US R&D goals.

This structure for NIIOS was chosen to enable the design and development of innovative surgical techniques such as DLEK, DSEK, DMEK, DMET, DALK and Bowman Layer Transplantation, and for medical devices such as VisionBlue, MembraneBlue, ILM-Blue, MembraneBlue Dual and the Surgicube that was designed for performing ophthalmic surgeries under sterile conditions in any clinical setting.

Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery (NIIOS)

Director

NIIOS USA is branch office of The Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery (NIIOS). With this branch office NIIOS further focuses on US R&D goals in close collaboration with leading universities and academic centers.

In addition NIIOS USA organizes wetlab courses on (advanced)  DMEK and Bowman Layer Transplantation throughout the USA.

NIIOS USA

Melles CorneaClinic Rotterdam is a tertiary referral center specialized in the treatment of corneal disorders and ocular surface diseases. Patients are treated with state-of-the-art transplantation techniques such as Bowman Layer Transplantation for advanced keratoconus and DMEK for endothelial disorders. In 2006 the first DMEK was performed in the clinic and in the course of years the technique was continuously evaluated and refined until it reached today’s high standard. More than 1000 DMEK’s have been performed in this clinic to date. DMEK is now acknowledged worldwide for unprecedented visual outcomes and low complication rates.
The high standard of performance is continuously monitored by internal and external audits, feedback from patients and referring ophthalmologists, and by clinical evaluation of our surgical outcomes.

Melles CorneaClinic Rotterdam

In 2003 Gerrit Melles received a license from the Dutch Ministry of Health to found an eye bank: Amnitrans EyeBank Rotterdam started its activities per January 1st, 2004.

Amnitrans EyeBank Rotterdam (AER) is an independent, non-profit, multi-tissue bank. While AER also supplies tissue for conventional penetrating keratoplasty, its main specialization is the surgical preparation of transplants for advanced lamellar keratoplasty procedures such as DMEK, which was pioneered by AER. The current DMEK preparation technique has been refined into a standardized “no touch” technique. In addition the bank continuously works on improving tissue storage and preservation techniques. Related organizations to Amnitrans EyeBank are ABI for custom made tissue preparation and Weefsel Centrum Nederland for donor tissue explantation.

Nowadays Amnitrans EyeBank is one of the most technically advanced eye banks in Europe.

Amnitrans EyeBank Rotterdam

- Acta Ophthalmologica
- American Journal of Ophthalmology
- British Journal of Ophthalmology
- Cornea
- Current Opinion in Ophthalmology
- European Journal of Ophthalmology
- Eye - Nature
- JAMA
- Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery
- Ophthalmology
- Review of Ophthalmology
- Survey of Ophthalmology
-        Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology

Various

Reviewer for scientific ophthalmic journals

Positions at Eye Hospital Rotterdam, Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam and Fondation Ophtalmologique Adolphe de Rothschild in Paris.